THE STATE OF ELECTIONS

The ECI had conducted a similar exercise in Bihar in 2003 and had then needed two years to finalise the revised electoral rolls. To again revise the rolls, that too within one month’s time, is both unprecedented and impractical

- Malay Mishra

At the Samvidhan Bachao rally organised by the Congress in Bhubaneswar on 11 July, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi called out the Election Commission of India (EC) for “stealing” elections as part of a mass disenfranchisement exercise in Bihar slated for polls in November, under the guise of undertaking the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which had already been completed in 2005.

The previous day, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court, while upholding the constitutionality of SIR, suggested that the ECI may consider the addition of three more documents, viz. Aadhaar, voter’s card (EPIC) and ration card in addition to the 11 documents already listed on the ground that the registration exercise according to the ECI’s submission was not “exhaustive” and that Aadhaar though not deemed to be a proof of citizenship could be used as an identity-bearing document. Incidentally, Aadhaar is used to generate all the supporting documents, therefore its exclusion by the ECI seems illogical. The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 had amended the RP ‘Act, 1950 to include Aadhaar as a valid document to establish the voter’s identity. According to UIDAI website, Aadhaar coverage in Bihar is at 94% and therefore there is no reason for the EC not to include Aadhaar as an acceptable document. This smacks of the integrity of the voter registration process which is aimed more at exclusion than inclusion of genuine voters.