The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls continued to cause stormy scenes at the monsoon session of the Bihar Legislative Assembly for the third day in a row, with the Speaker allowing discussion on the subject after three days of Opposition protest.
Speaker Nand Kishor Yadav’s decision to allow the discussion came despite Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s objections to it. During the debate, Bihar’s Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav questioned the timing, transparency, and documentation requirements for SIR – the Election Commission’s contentious exercise to update electoral rolls.
“The Constitution grants the right to vote to every person above 18 years, regardless of wealth or status. This equality must not be infringed,” he said.
The Opposition, he insisted, “wasn’t against the SIR itself” but opposed the process. Referring to complaints cited by the Election Commission about non-resident and ‘external’ voters.
“The Election Commission should work honestly and transparently, but it is not doing so. We strongly oppose and deny this in the House,” he said. “It is shameful that such a significant drive is going on and yet the Election Commissioner has not addressed the press to clarify their position; instead, information emerges only through unnamed sources.”
He also wondered at the “urgency” of conducting the exercise, pointing out that the last such revision in 2003 took two years to complete.
“If the process is so important, why not start after the Lok Sabha elections? Why was it initiated now, during the monsoon season?” he asked. “Bihar is at the bottom in terms of essential documents, whether it’s a birth or death certificate. Only 2.3% of people have the necessary documents. Now, 11 documents are being demanded which most poor people don’t possess. Why aren’t Aadhaar, ration cards, or MNREGA cards being accepted, despite Supreme Court suggestions?”
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This figure includes both 3 crore registered workers and around 1 crore unregistered voters who, despite their tenure outside, “return to Bihar to vote”. “There is now a risk their names may be deleted from the rolls,” the LOP argued.
Addressing allegations about foreign nationals on the rolls, he said: “The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. In the 780-page affidavit filed by the Election Commission, there is no mention of any Bangladeshi, Nepali, or Myanmar national. Even BJP’s over 52,000 Booth Level Agents have never raised such complaints with the Election Commission.”
In response, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar accused the Opposition of making electoral rolls revision “an issue because of their lack of work and upcoming elections”. The RJD too had been in power once, he went on to say.
“Why are you raising these issues now? Your father was chief minister for seven years, then your mother for another seven years, and then you were also deputy chief minister,” Kumar said. “Look at what your budget used to be earlier, and how much more we’ve done for everyone now. Today, it’s more than Rs 3 lakh crore and the central government is providing a lot of support too… we surveyed Bihar to identify where anything was lacking. Wherever there were gaps, we’ve addressed them… Whenever there was a need, we made sure the work got done,” he said.
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He then said: “Ab mamla hai ki chunav ladna hai to bhai chunav ladiye aur usme amd band jitna bolna hai bolte rahiye (But now it’s about contesting elections. So go contest and you can say as much as you like).”
The situation began to heat up when a comment made by RJD MLA Bhai Virendra caused uproar and led to the house being adjourned until the afternoon session.
