The Opposition on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court direction allowing excluded voters to apply for inclusion online on the basis of Aadhaar or any of the 11 prescribed documents in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said democracy had survived “a brutal assault from the Election Commission”, which stands “exposed”. “Today it [SC] reaffirmed Aadhar as a valid ID that the ECI MUST accept. Today, the Supreme Court has laid down guardrails to make the revision more inclusive by including political parties in the process” he said on X.
“So far the ECI’s approach has been obstructionist and contrary to the interests of the voters. We welcome this judgment especially because it gives us an enforceable right which the ECI cannot ignore. Today, the ECI stands totally exposed and discredited,” he said.
TMC MP Sagarika Ghose in a post on X said the directions were a big win for the “Opposition’s campaign” in the Supreme Court. “The right to vote is the inalienable right of every citizen! NO to arbitrary deletions. NO to Modi-Shah vote chori,” she posted.
The CPI(M), while welcoming the SC’s intervention, sought to point out that “it may not undo the damage from the exclusion of 65 lakh people from the voters’ list given the limited amount of time left” till the conclusion of the exercise.
At an event in Kochi, meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah attacked the Opposition for “creating doubt” about the SIR exercise without filing a formal complaint. He said the exercise had been conducted on several occasions in the past.
