New Delhi: The Opposition is set to target the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and “vote chori” (vote theft) in the upcoming winter session of Parliament, but the parties might do so in their individual ways, people familiar with the matter said.
The winter session of Parliament is scheduled from December 1 to 19, and the Union government has called an all-party meeting on November 30 to discuss the key issues.
According to the people, the Congress’s focus is likely to be on the Bihar election results and its campaign for 50 million signatures against vote theft, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would discuss the issues raised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in her letter to poll body chief Gyanesh Kumar, and the DMK is set to highlight the Tamil Nadu government’s challenge to the SIR in the Supreme Court.
The Congress, which could win just six seats in the Bihar elections, has announced a rally early next month in Delhi against “vote theft” and the ECI.
“It will be a Congress rally. Not an INDIA group rally. As you are aware, for the past few months, we have collected more than 5 crore signatures against vote chori. The rally is being organised in the context of the culmination of the signature campaign,” Congress’s media department head Pawan Khera said.
Earlier, Khera had said, “The Supreme Court issued 5 orders regarding SIR, which exposed the Election Commission’s malice, and the Supreme Court has also seen it. The Congress Party ran a ‘Signature Campaign’ across the country, in which 5 crore signatures have been collected. This was a campaign run at the party level. If the voter’s right is taken away, we will all raise our voices, and it is our duty.”
TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien confirmed that their focus would remain on the functioning of the ECI. “Our strategy in the winter session will be based on Mamata Banerjee’s letter to the CEC. We will demand a debate on the Election Commission, We have no problem with the resolution of the debate. Let the government decide the resolution,” he said.
In her letter to the CEC on Thursday, Banerjee had urged Kumar to halt the SIR, alleging that continuing the “unplanned and coercive drive” would not only endanger more lives but also jeopardise the legitimacy of exercise.
SIR was rolled out in West Bengal, which is set to go to polls next year, on November 4.
O’Brien pointed out that there are nine instances when the working of the ECI was discussed in Parliament. “We have found nine precedents. Here are three samples: i) Postponement of a bye-election in Nohar Assembly Constituency of Rajasthan(1965); ii) inadequacies in the electoral law in not providing a specific period for completion of a bye-election to Parliament; (1981) and iii) delay in holding election to Delhi Metropolitan Council and bye-election in Garhwal Parliamentary Constituency (1982),” he said, alleging the BJP-led central government has deliberately shortened the winter session to avoid a debate on SIR.
According to a senior Opposition leader, the Aam Aadmi Party, too, is unlikely to follow the Congress’s line, and may lend support to the TMC or the Samajwadi Party in Parliament.
