The Congress on Saturday demanded an impartial investigation into the country’s voter lists and a halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process after errors were detected in the voter list for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council election.
Ramesh also cited the Pilibhit assembly case, where the post-SIR electoral roll reportedly had discrepancies in the details of over 10,000 voters. Uttar Pradesh Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam said, “The Congress had also raised the discrepancy in voter list of assembly constituency Pilibhit Sadar where a total over 16,000 voters details were changed after the final draft list brought out in April. Ramesh demanded the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Ramesh wrote: “There are only a few months left until the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, but these emerging cases raise serious questions about voters’ rights and electoral transparency. Similar discrepancy can be possible in other lists, hence the party demands a thorough checking of all lists.
Calling the SIR “fake”, he sought an immediate halt to it. “When these ‘errors’ surfaced in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council election, how can anyone claim that such things didn’t happen in other elections?” he wrote. He cited discrepancies in voters’ names such as “Ram Ne Yadav Ko Mara”, “Murkh Chandra Yadav” in MLC elections held on 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh on Friday. “This statement by the election official reinforces the questions raised by two Election Commissioners and the opposition’s firm belief that the Election Commission is being run in an unconstitutional manner, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution,” Ramesh said.
Citing the UP MLC polls (held on Friday), Jairam Ramesh, general secretary in charge of communications, Indian National Congress, wrote on X in Hindi: “The Election Commission is trying to deflect the blame for a premeditated conspiracy orchestrated to assist the BJP onto the software, which is unacceptable.
“Our clear demand is that chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign immediately, and an immediate halt be imposed on this fake SIR process being run with the intent of benefiting the BJP. An impartial investigation into the voter list must be conducted, the complete machine-readable data must be made public, and the protection of every eligible citizen’s voting rights must be ensured.
