Patna, Sep 27 (PTI) Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Sunday accused opposition parties of raising a false alarm over deletion of voters from Bihar’s electoral list in the SIR conducted ahead of the 2025 assembly elections.
Terming Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi the “prince” of Congress, the senior BJP leader said that he toured Bihar ahead of last year’s assembly polls and raised allegations that several voter names were struck off the electoral list illegally.
“But no case of illegal deletion could be proved,” Choudhary told a press conference here. He alleged that the opposition parties were raising a “false alarm” over the issue.
“During the SIR in Bihar, 22.34 lakh voters were found dead, 36.28 lakh voters moved from one place to another, and seven lakh voters were registered at two places. These names were deleted, but no counter-claims or applications were received,” he said.
The Election Commission has been under fire following a news report of disquiet within the poll panel over pan-India SIR.
Seeking to capitalise on the opportunity, opposition parties have demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with Gandhi alleging that the poll panel chief was made in charge of “match-fixing” India’s elections by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
The objections covered changes to the statutory voter registration Form 6, the handling of additions and deletions from electoral rolls, and centralised control over the electoral roll database.
However, the poll panel asserted that all SIR orders received unanimous consent from all three commissioners and that updates to Form 6 for voter enrolment were upheld by the Supreme Court. PTI SUK NSD
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