New Delhi, Sep 25 (IANS): Amid the controversies surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, Shiv Sena-UBT leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Friday said that, keeping aside what the opposition leaders are saying, even common people are raising questions about the SIR process.
Speaking to IANS on opposition parties preparing to bring an impeachment motion against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, she said, “Political parties are one side. People are now beginning to wonder whether our vote is authorised, and after being authorised, whether it is valid. Whether it is being tampered with or not…
“Since the SIR process has started, our only complaint is that the additions and deletions that are happening are being done arbitrarily. At present, we have learned through the Election Commissioners that they raised objections fourteen times in the last 10 months,” Chaturvedi said.
She mentioned that the two Election Commissioners raised the point that “Voter addition, deletion, and restoration processes in the SIR process were not clear. The commission held no meeting, and all the decisions were being taken arbitrarily, which they realised only after they got the news in the media.”
She added, citing the officers, that the IT infrastructure of electoral rolls was being centralised. “The most crucial part of the Election Commission’s responsibility is keeping all the election-related processes decentralised so that all the State election commissioners could be empowered,” she added.
She also said that introducing Form 6 was illegal because they had to take permission from the government to introduce it, but they did not. She added that “Goa’s example had come forth that when the ERO asked to include voters’ names after completing their investigation, stating that the voters are authorised and that they should be relisted. The information had to be given to the central database. They couldn’t include the names themselves.
Chaturvedi added, “There are no signatures on the press release from the Election Commission. No press conference was held. None of the three Election Commissioners sat together. On what basis is the BJP supporting them?”
She asked, saying, “The question is, if everything happened according to their wishes, these were initial objections, initial differences, and then everyone collectively took the decision, why were two Election Commissioners eager to meet the Cabinet Secretary to tell him how arbitrary actions were being carried out?”
Earlier, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, confronted the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the centre, asking the CEC to resign and turn “approver” in the alleged “stealing” of votes.
This comes a day after a media report claimed differences within the poll panel regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and other issues. The Election Commission of India (ECI), however, has rejected the report.
