Bihar Election Amendment Row: Opposition meets EC; Exercises the dub as ‘vote ban’. Bharat News

New Delhi: A delegation of 11 opposition parties met the Election Commission on Wednesday and objected to the intense amendment of the election role in Bihar a few months before the upcoming assembly elections.The delegation dubbed the practice as a “vote ban” and claimed that it would “under threat” in the state.Briefing the media after a meeting with the pole body, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the time of the amendment raised serious concerns.“This exercise involves verifying more than 7.75 crore voters in Bihar. With barely 2-3 months for the assembly elections, such a large-scale exercise is neither practical nor fair,” he said, it is called a violation of the level of playground required for free and fair elections.Singhvi, RJD MP Manoj Jha, CPM’s Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Kumar and others said that the delegation also expressed strong rejection to the new rule of EC, restricting the number of party representatives in such meetings. He said that senior leaders like Jeram Ramesh and Pawan Khera were denied entry and made to wait outside.Singhvi said, “This type of limit that can meet the Commission – capping it on two people, including the party president – is unprecedented and arbitrary.”‘Vote ban’By calling the practice as ‘vote ban’, Bhattacharya claimed that the Commission admitted that 20% of Bihar voters live outside the state, which effectively means they may lose their right to vote.This is nothing short of ‘vote ban’ for Bihar, “he said, demonetisation compared to exercise, or ‘demonetisation’, was done in 2016.“We seem to have a failure from the Election Commission to explain that one month is not sufficient for millions of voters to present the identity documents. Democracy is in danger in Bihar. The movement of a prominent people is now necessary, “he said.Meeting ‘not cordial’RJD leader Jha said that the meeting with the pole body was “not amicable.”He said, “We expressed our concern about poor, backward classes in Bihar. We saw a lack of concern with the Election Commission,” he said.“Is it an attempt to separate people? 20 percent of Biharis who migrate outside the state are goals. If the purpose of a practice is excluded instead of inclusion, what should we do? Are you trying to find suspicious voters in Bihar?” He said.‘Concerns arose completely’The source, however, told PTI that some participants were given an appointment and others were allowed to join without any prior appointment, as the commission decided to meet two representatives of each party.He also said that every concern raised by the parties was “fully addressed” by the Commission.The pole body has given the mantra to take out foreign illegal migrants from the voting list of six states starting from Bihar.According to the pole body, it is part of its crack on illegal migrants from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.The poll panel reminded the constitutional provision that says only Indian citizens can vote. The EC said in a statement, “The Constitution of India is supreme. All citizens, political parties and the Election Commission of India follow the Constitution.”The EC said that special amendments in Bihar have already started successfully to verify the eligibility of each electoral with the “full participation” of all political parties.The pole panel already has about 78,000 booth-level officers (BLOS) and are appointed more than 20,000 for new polling stations.More than one million volunteers will assist real voters, especially old, sick, disabled persons, poor and other weak groups during special intensive amendment.Of the current 7,89,69,844 voters, 4.96 crore voters, whose names are already in the final intensive amendment of the electoral roll on January 1, 2003, “Just verify, fill the calculation form and submit it”.