Rajya Sabha MPS including Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Syeed Naseer Hussain, seek discussion on SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar

New Delhi [India], July 23 (ANI): Rajya Sabha MPS Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Syed Naseer Hussain, Ranani Ashokrao Patil and Ranjeet Ranjan on Wednesday submitted an Adjournment motion to discuss the urgent matter of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in Bihar.
Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) MP Sushmita Dev also submitted an Adjournment motion to discuss ongoing issue of SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.
In her letter to the General Secretary of Rajya Sabha, the party MP alleged that the government had been using the Election Commission to carry out the "exclusionary" agenda of snatching away voting rights under the guise of the voter list revision.
She further stated that the exercise "threatened" to disenfranchise two crore voters and particularly targeted the poor, migrants and marginalised communities by demanding documents such as the parental birth certificate, domicile proof and other records which most citizens did not possess.
"Even widely accepted identity documents like Aadhaar and ration cards were initially excluded from the verification process and even after a widespread public outcry, the Election Commission is reiterating the same. The exercise, being conducted during monsoon floods and peak migration season, makes it logistically unrealistic for lakhs of citizens to comply, raising serious apprehensions that this is a mechanism to exclude lakhs of voters rather than a genuine electoral update," the letter further read.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Manickam Tagore submitted an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha to discuss the voters' list revision being carried out by the Election Commission (EC ) in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
In his notice, Tagore labelled the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise as "dangerous and unconstitutional".
He accused the Narendra Modi government of "using" the election commission to "disenfranchise the poor and the marginalised communities in Bihar".
"This House do adjourn to discuss the dangerous and unconstitutional moves by the Modi Government to use the Election Commission as a tool to systematically disenfranchise the poor, backward, Dalit, and marginalised communities in Bihar by means of the SIR mechanism, thereby violating the fundamental right to vote granted by the Constitution, as envisioned by Babasaheb Dr BR Ambedkar," the notice read. (ANI)