The political tussle over the controversial Bihar electoral drive escalated on Saturday with the Opposition calling it a ploy to help the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) win the upcoming state polls and the ruling coalition hailing it as a democratic exercise aimed at weeding out ineligible voters. The controversy over Bihar SIR rocked the ongoing session of Parliament, with the Opposition demanding a discussion on the issue in the House.(AICC)

The first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) concluded on Saturday, and an Election Commission bulletin from Friday indicated that nearly 6.5 million names might be excluded from the draft electoral roll due to death, duplication, permanent migration, or non-submission of forms.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) questioned the legitimacy of the drive, saying that it was aimed at reducing the votes of people from the marginalised and minority communities in order to give an electoral edge to the BJP.

“The updated voters’ list is being prepared at the behest of the BJP-led NDA. The SIR is a sham. There has been no transparency in the exercise, and the figures given by ECI about possible deletions are imaginary and without any proof,” party spokesperson Chittaranjan Gagan said.

The Congress questioned the timing of the drive and said that it was carried out “hurriedly” without following due diligence. “There is a hidden agenda behind the SIR. The way it was conducted in a hurried manner only shows there is more to what meets the eye. There is a plan to deny the right to vote to such voters who are not aligned with secular values,” Congress legislature party leader Shakeel AhmadKhan said.

The controversy over the exercise has also rocked the ongoing session of Parliament, with the Opposition demanding a discussion on the issue in the House.

NDA members rejected the Opposition’s charge, saying that SIR will weed out ineligible voters and legitimise the electoral roll. “The SIR has been done in a transparent and democratic way…it will help in sanitising the rolls. This exercise would strengthen the right to vote of the poor people,” deputy chief minister and BJP leader Samrat Choudhary said.

The JD(U) called the Opposition’s allegations an attempt to come up with excuses for their impending poll defeat. “The SIR has been done transparently, and house-to-house verification has revealed facts. The opposition RJD and INDIA bloc are making all baseless allegations about SIR because they know they cannot beat the good governance model of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,” senior JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan said.