Prashant Kishor slams voter list revision: Calls EC pocess ‘Non-Transparent’, seeks SC intervention

Supreme Court permits Election Commission’s voter list clean-up but seeks transparency. Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party alleges unfair deletions. 22 lakh dead, 36 lakh migrants, 7 lakh duplicates removed. Opposition cries foul ahead of Bihar elections.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday gave an important decision regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar. The court did not put any stay on this decision of the Election Commission for the time being, although it accepted some of the concerns of the petitioners.

Prashant Kishore raises a furore

Prashant Kishore, founder of the Jan Suraj Party, raised serious objections to this process. He says that the Election Commission did not involve all the stakeholders in this process and did not clarify on what basis the names of the people are being removed. Kishore called this process not transparent and expressed hope for justice from the Supreme Court.

The figures of the first phase of the SIR process in Bihar are shocking. So far, the names of about 65 lakh voters have been removed from the list, of which:

- 22 lakh (2.83%) have been declared dead

- 36 lakh (4.59%) have permanently migrated to other states

- 7 lakh (0.89%) have been found registered in more than one place

Opposition parties allege that the process is not transparent, and due to hasty decisions, the names of many genuine voters may also be removed by mistake. They also say that the Election Commission did not consult political parties and other stakeholders enough in this process.

The Supreme Court gave an important suggestion in this matter and said that Aadhaar and Voter ID Card (EPIC) should be made the basis in the SIR process. The court said that if there is any doubt in any case, it should be investigated, although it did not give any order.

This matter is creating a lot of stir in Bihar politics, as the next assembly elections are near. The opposition alleges that the ruling party wants to take advantage of this process to change the voter list in its favor, while the Election Commission says that this is just a routine cleaning campaign to make the voter list more accurate.

Now all eyes are on the Supreme Court, which can give more clear guidelines in the next hearing in this case. For now, the SIR process will continue, and the deleted voters will have the option to appeal.