The 65 Lakh Hole

The opposition vs the ECI: India's mega political play begins with the Bihar march; Bengal braces to become the next battlefield

- By Snigdhendu Bhattacharya IS A JOURNALIST, AUTHOR AND RESEARCHER

On August 17, Bihar's top opposition leaders, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) helmsman Dipankar Bhattacharya, joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to kickstart a 1,300 km march over 16 days across 23 districts in the poll-bound state.

Named as Voter Adhikar Yatra (march for electoral rights), the campaign calls for defeating the “disenfranchisement design” of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is conducting in the northern state.

While the ECI said the drive is aimed at cleaning up the electoral rolls of the dead, duplicate and migrant voters and illegal infiltrators, the opposition alleges the SIR is meant to rig the electoral roll to suit the interests of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads India's ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The August 17 march, therefore, marks the beginning of a concerted campaign branding the BJP as a beneficiary of the ECI's alleged partisan role.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh calls the Yatra a response to the “BJP’s ploy to disenfranchise lakhs of voters in Bihar through the SIR” and “the shocking revelations of ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) happening across the country.” It’s not “just another political march”, but “a moral and constitutional crusade”, says Ramesh.

The Supreme Court is yet to rule on the constitutional validity of the SIR exercise, which seeks to ascertain the citizenship of people on the electoral rolls. It has allowed the ECI to move ahead with the process of voter list revision while continuing to monitor the developments. But two interim orders by the top court have understandably emboldened India’s opposition camp, including those that are part of the Bihar opposition alliance.