SC order on electoral rolls leaves NDA, INDIA bloc at each other’s throats in Bihar

The BJP on Thursday said the apex court allowing the Election Commission (EC) to continue with the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll in Bihar is a "setback" to the opposition parties that are protesting against the exercise and asked them to work hard to woo the voters, instead of raising a hue and cry over it. BJP's national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told that the poll panel initiated the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar ahead of the state Assembly polls to ensure that only the eligible voters exercise their franchise. "It is the EC's constitutional right," the MP from Bihar's Saran said. "Opposition parties had approached the Supreme Court on the issue, but the apex court did not stay the process. It is a major setback to those political parties that started this campaign (against the SIR)," Rudy said, when asked for a comment. These opposition parties must now be scared and have started sensing their defeat in the upcoming Bihar election, the former Union minister said. "They should work hard enough to woo their voters, rather than coming out crying that their voters are being removed," he quipped.

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the EC to continue with its special scrutiny of the electoral roll in Bihar, calling it a "constitutional mandate". It also asked the poll panel to consider Aadhaar, voter-ID and ration cards as valid documents for the identification of voters during the exercise. Noting that the apex court made certain observations while hearing the matter, Rudy said the EC will look into those. A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi expressed reservations over the timing of the revision and asked, "Why is this being undertaken just months before the election, when the exercise could have been initiated much earlier?" "If you are to check citizenship under the SIR of the electoral roll in Bihar, then you should have acted early. It is a bit late," the bench said. More than 10 petitions have been filed in the apex court on the issue, including one by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, the lead petitioner. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress's 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 Sarfaraz Ahmed and Dipankar Bhattacharya of the CPI(ML) are among those who have moved the top court, seeking a direction for the quashing of the EC order. Rudy rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegation that the NDA government wants to "rig" the Bihar polls as it did in the 2024 Maharashtra election, and said it is unfair to "cry foul" and accuse the EC of being "biased and unfair".

"Those who are eligible to vote are added to the electoral roll while those not eligible are weeded out. The names of those who are not (Indian) citizens and do not fulfil the prerequisites are removed. This process is followed across the country," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said. The process of revision of the electoral roll is a "constitutional action" and the EC has to initiate it prior to every election, he added. "Legitimate voters have to be added. Those who do not qualify to be voters in Bihar need to be removed," Rudy said. Bihar is scheduled to go to polls later in the year.