CPI(ML) Liberation Slams EC Clarification on Bihar Voter Rolls as 'Misleading and Confusing'

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) CPI(ML) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya on Tuesday said the Election Commission's attempts to provide clarification on the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar were only adding to the confusion and misinformation surrounding the exercise.

In a statement issued here, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary said the poll panel must call off the special drive, calling it "arbitrary and utterly ill-planned".

"The more the ECI seeks to provide clarification about the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, the more confusing and misleading it gets," Bhattacharya said.

He alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) was trying to "trivialise" the revision exercise, saying rolls are revised annually.

"The last time a special intensive revision was conducted was 22 years ago. It is certainly not a routine annual exercise," he said.

He said only citizens are entitled to vote, but never before in India were electors asked to prove their citizenship.

"The onus was on the state to prove otherwise. Now every elector is being doubted and asked to prove his or her citizenship with the help of documents that many in India still do not possess," he said.

He said it is the state's responsibility to register every birth, and no birth becomes invalid because of non-registration.

"Rather than asking people to excavate past records, let the state ensure universal registration of births and deaths to ensure automatic updating of records," he said.

The CPI(ML) leader also questioned why consultations were not held with political parties before it was decided to carry out the exercise.

"The ECI offers no explanation as to why it had no prior consultation with any political party before launching the SIR? Why was it announced all of a sudden? "When demonetisation was announced, the government said it wanted to catch black money holders unaware. Why did the ECI want to catch voters off guard?" he questioned.

Bhattacharya said it is "little consolation" to know that voters who can trace their legacy to the 2003 electoral roll will not have to provide birth records of their parents, and the question is not so much about numbers, it is about the process and its consequences.

"While the ECI now seeks to provide false comfort by talking of the 4.96 crore voters who will not have to submit documents, what about the 3 crore who will have to submit them? What about the massive number of electors who are likely to be disenfranchised in the process?" he said.

Bhattacharya said the ECI must withdraw "arbitrary and utterly ill-planned and non-transparent fiat and conduct the elections on the basis of normal updating of the electoral roll as has been done in every election over the last two decades".

"The focus must be on facilitating electors in the exercise of their franchise and not creating difficulties and excluding electors from the election process," he said.

Under attack from the opposition for holding a revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, EC officials on Monday cited weeding out ineligible voters and "demographic integrity" of some constituencies where the number of migrants has become more than the victory margins as key reasons.

The officials underlined that the exercise was not held periodically and said Article 326 mandates it to ensure all eligible citizens are on the voters' list and those not entitled as per law are kept out.