New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday described the Election Commission’s decision to make electoral rolls available to parties in a readable format as a response to nationwide demonstrations against alleged “vote chori”. While acknowledging the change, the party said it would continue to press for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s removal and an immediate halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, said the party and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had repeatedly sought searchable electoral rolls from the poll panel over the last two years. According to him, the Commission had declined the request since 2018, after the Congress claimed to have detected lakhs of fictitious voters in Madhya Pradesh.
“The demand was repeatedly refused by the ECI which stopped providing searchable voter rolls in 2018 when the Congress found lakhs of bogus voters in Madhya Pradesh. The demand was denied for 8 years to enable Vote Chori,” Ramesh said on X.
‘Whole Nation On Streets’
Referring to the Commission’s October 15 order, Ramesh said electoral rolls would now be supplied in a searchable format to political parties for the Special Summary Revision (SSR), which has resumed after two years in 17 states and Union Territories, as reported by The New Indian Express.
“This is because the whole nation is on the streets against the Vote Chors,” he claimed.
“Every time ‘vote chori’ is caught, the Modi government adopts a new tactic: stopping readable voter rolls, fake voter additions, SIR. But not this time,” Ramesh said.
‘CEC Has To Go’
The Congress leader alleged that Gyanesh Kumar had acted at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and had eroded public confidence in the Election Commission.
“Nothing can save the CEC, who, acting on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, has destroyed public trust and confidence in the ECI,” Ramesh said.
“He simply has to go. But that alone will not be enough. The ECI itself along with its IT system has to be thoroughly revamped,” he added.
Ramesh further demanded that the SIR be withdrawn without delay, saying it endangered the constitutional right to vote of more than 13 crore people.
The Election Commission has ordered the annual Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union Territories, including those scheduled to go to the assembly polls early next year. The final electoral rolls in these states are to be published on January 4.
A senior EC official said the SSR is a legally mandated annual exercise and is conducted with particular focus in poll-bound states. The SIR has already been completed in these 17 states and Union Territories, while Assam saw a special revision instead of an SIR because of legal considerations.
For the first time, political parties will receive “readable” electoral rolls at both the draft and final stages, in hard and soft copies. Candidates in states heading for elections will also be given draft and final rolls, while the electoral registration officer will make the rolls available for sale to other persons before the polls.