EC silent on SIR and addition of 70 lakh new voters between Lok Sabha, Maha polls: Congress

New Delhi: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Monday alleged that the Election Commission (EC) was functioning under officials “who are not unbiased,” while questioning the poll body’s handling of the Special Summary Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Addressing a press conference, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said, “In its press conference yesterday, the EC raised questions about the political parties when they had to explain why they were conducting SIR in a hurry. The EC was silent on SIR in Bihar. They were also silent on how 70 lakh new voters were added between Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections. It is clear that EC is under such officials who are not unbiased.”

Meawhile, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav stated, "Election Commission saying that baseless complaints being made is wrong...In UP, the process to cut votes has already started...All this is done in a calculated way, and EC ignores our complaints. This is a serious issue."

The sharp remarks came as several MPs of the INDIA bloc staged a protest in the Parliament House complex against the voter roll revision in Bihar. Led by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the opposition members shouted slogans of “vote chor, gaddi chhor” and “vote chori band karo,” and carried banners that read “Stop vote chori.”

Leaders from the Congress, TMC, DMK, Left parties, RJD, and Samajwadi Party joined the protest outside the Makar Dwar of Parliament. Some SP members also displayed copies of the affidavit submitted by their chief Akhilesh Yadav to the EC, accusing the poll body of deleting names of voters from backward communities.

Kharge said the ECI “cannot relinquish its Constitutional duty and evade genuine queries of political parties.” He asserted that the INDIA bloc would resist any attempt to “stifle democracy.” Kharge also tried to raise the issue in Rajya Sabha but was disallowed by the chair.

“The right to vote has been given to us by the Constitution, and no one has the right to take it away. The ECI is threatening and intimidating us, but we are not ones to be scared. We will keep fighting for democracy,” Kharge later said in a post on X.