Pure electoral roll inevitable for strengthening democracy: CEC

As the united opposition hit out at the Election Commission over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar electoral rolls and has also reached out to the Supreme Court, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday asserted that the exercise was "inclusive" and it was "inevitable for strengthening democracy."

- Mukesh Ranjan @New Delhi

"Pure electoral rolls are inevitable for strengthening democracy," Kumar said.

The opposition parties in their tirade against the EC have been saying the exercise would deprive crores of voters their right to vote.

The Supreme Court had on Monday agreed to hear on July 10 a batch of petitions challenging the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Several fresh pleas, including a joint petition by opposition leaders of Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), SP, JMM, CPI and CPI (M-L), were filed in the SC against the poll panel's decision to conduct the special intensive revision before Bihar go to polls later this year.