'SIR not a new exercise, even Chandrababu Naidu...': Pawan Khera questions timing of EC's roll revision

Pawan Khera

Questioning the timing of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar, Congress leader Pawan Khera on Thursday said: "SIR is not a new exercise as it was done in 2003 as well. The Congress party's primary objection is the gap between the conducting the SIR and the commencement of the election process in Bihar is extremely narrow. The time period is conducive to carry out such an extensive process."

Speaking to ANI, Khera said: "SIR is nothing new, in 2003 it happened and it took two years for it...Even Chandrababu Naidu objected to the limited gap between SIR and elections in Bihar and we have been objecting to the timing and the process adopted in SIR in Bihar."

Talking about the exclusions, Khera said: "You have declared thousands of people dead and they are alive. You've declared several thousand migrants, but they are not migrants. So all these anomalies in the SIR in Bihar need to be fixed."

Leading the grand old party's charge against SIR in Bihar, Pawan Khera in August had explained how the party had filed 89 lakh complaints with the Election Commission of India (ECI), and possessed stamped receipts as evidence, contrary to the ECI’s claims that there were “zero complaints” against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. “The party has asserted that all the deleted names would have to be verified again,” Pawan Khera, All India Congress Committee chairperson of the media and publicity department, said Khera addressing a press conference in August.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to include Aadhaar as a valid proof for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The top court, however, made it clear that Aadhaar was not a proof of citizenship and the ECI is entitled to verify if the documents are genuine.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi passed the interim order while considering the response of political parties like the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), AIMIM and other petitioners on the poll panel’s note where it has submitted that 99.5% of the 7.24 crore electors in the draft electoral roll had filed their eligibility documents in the SIR exercise.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar has raised concerns, with deletions in some areas defying demographic patterns and statistical expectations. While the Opposition has claimed serious issues with rolls across the country, there is no clear-cut evidence as yet of fraudulent manipulation to benefit any political party.