Salman Khurshid shrugs off concerns over Bihar electoral roll revision: ‘Unless you win…’

The Supreme Court has also allowed the EC to continue with its exercise of conducting the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar

Amid the ongoing row in Bihar over the Election Commission (EC)’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Saturday asserted that questions over the poll body’s conduct are inconsequential, as ultimately, winning the election is what counts.

"Whoever is raising questions (on the Election Commission), let them... The reality is that, ultimately, unless you win the election, your point will not matter, so we have to try to put all our efforts into winning the elections…", Salman Khurshid told ANI.

His comments come at a time when several party leaders are critical of the move to conduct the exercise especially in the run up to the Bihar Assembly polls.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making attempts to “steal (chori) the elections in Bihar, as it did in Maharashtra” last year.

Addressing the party’s ‘Samvidhan Bachao Samavesh’ in Bhubaneswar, the Congress leaders also accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of not doing its duty but working for the interest of the BJP.

“We will prevent the BJP and ECI from stealing the elections in Bihar,” Gandhi said, according to PTI.

The Supreme Court has also allowed the EC to continue with its exercise of conducting the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi did not stay the SIR process on Thursday but asked the EC to consider allowing Aadhaar, ration cards, and electoral photo identity cards as admissible documents to prove voter identity during the SIR of electoral rolls being undertaken in Bihar.

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s verdict, Khurshid said, “One should not speak on the verdict of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has given relief too in this case...”