Don't cry, try wooing voters: BJP to oppn as SC allows Bihar electoral roll revision to continue

Bihar is scheduled to go for polls later this year

The BJP on Thursday said the apex court allowing the Election Commission to continue with the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar was a "setback" to the opposition parties protesting the exercise and asked them to work hard to woo their voters, instead of raising hue and cry over it.

BJP MP and the party's national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told PTI Videos that the poll panel initiated the special intensive revision in Bihar ahead of the assembly polls in the state to ensure that only eligible voters exercise their franchise.

"It's the Election Commission's constitutional right," the MP from Bihar's Saran Lok Sabha seat said.

"The Opposition parties had approached the Supreme Court on the issue. But, the apex court did not stay the process. It's a major setback to the political parties which started this campaign (against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar)," Rudy said, when asked for a comment.

These opposition parties must now be scared and have started sensing their defeat in the upcoming Bihar elections, the former Union minister said. "They should work hard enough to get (woo) their voters… rather than coming out crying that their voters are being removed." The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Election Commission of India to continue with its special scrutiny of electoral rolls in Bihar, calling it a "constitutional mandate". It also asked the poll panel to consider Aadhaar, Voter ID and ration cards as valid documents during the exercise.

Noting the apex court's certain observations while hearing matter, Rudy said the Election Commission will look into them.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi expressed reservations over the timing of the revision and asked, "Why is this being undertaken just months before elections, when the exercise could have been initiated much earlier?" The bench went on, "If you are to check citizenship under SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, then you should have acted early. It is a bit late." Over 10 petitions have been filed in the apex court, including one by NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms', the lead petitioner.

RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K C Venugopal, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, CPI leader D Raja, Samajwadi Party's Harinder Singh Malik, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, JMM's Sarfraz Ahmed and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have also moved the top court, seeking direction for quashing the EC order.