Whole nation worried about right to vote, but PM Modi on foreign visits: Congress Gaurav Gogoi over Bihar SIR

New Delhi [India], July 25 (ANI): Congress MP Gauarav Gogoi on Friday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that while the people are worried about the "impartiality of Election Commission," amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in poll bound Bihar, the Prime Minister has embarked on foreign visits.
"The whole nation is worried about the impartiality of the Election Commission and its right to vote. At a time like this, the Prime Minister is out of the country. When the Parliament proceedings are going on and when we want discussions, he is on his foreign visit. This shows his sensitivity towards the matter," Gogoi told ANI outside Parliament.
The Congress leader criticised the alleged "politicisation of the Election Commission," likening it to the 2023 delimitation of Assam's parliamentary and assembly constituencies, alleging that the exercise benefited the Bharatiya Janata Party, which currently leads the state government.
"The whole country is seeing the politicisation of the Election Commission. But we saw all this in Assam 2.5 years ago. Delimitation was carried out throughout the state to benefit the BJP in Lok Sabha as well as the assembly elections," Gogoi alleged.
The 2023 delimitation of Assam constituencies was carried out based on the 2001 Census, as provided in Article 70 and Article 82 of the Constitution.
"The number of seats in the Legislative Assembly in the State of Assam have been kept as 126 and number of seats allocated in the House of People for the State of Assam as 14. Articles 170 and 82 laid down that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of each State and the allocation of seats in the House of the people to the States shall not be altered until the relevant figures for the first census taken after year 2026 have been published," the Election Commission said in a 2023 statement.
The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar has erupted a massive row in the country, with the opposition INDIA bloc alleging that it will delete a significant chunk of voters.
Earlier today, several opposition parliamentarians in the Rajya Sabha moved Suspension of Business notices, urging a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in Bihar during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Several senior Congress leaders, including the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and party leader Priyanka Gandhi, also participated in the protest. The MPs marched from the Gandhi statue on the Parliament premises ahead of the start of the day's session and tore the posters on the SIR in a symbolic rejection of the revision exercise.
Earlier, PM Modi left from the United Kingdom after signing a mutually beneficial Free Trade Trade Agreement (FTA), and reached Maldives for a state visit at the invitation of Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu. (ANI)