‘Mockery of democracy’: Congress leader after IE’s EC investigation

The Gujarat Congress has demanded an “explanation” regarding the “irregularities” in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process as exposed in an investigation by The Indian Express on September 23.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and former Union minister Tushar Chaudhary said, “According to The Indian Express report, the two commissioners (Sukhbir Singh) Sandhu and (Vivek) Joshi, who work with Chief Election Commissioner Gynanesh Kumar have complained 14 times in the last 10 months that there are serious irregularities in the SIR process: Voters are being denied their right to vote and dropped from the electoral rolls. When their own team members make such serious allegations, the Election Commission (EC) needs to give an explanation as this amounts to a mockery of democracy which is a serious matter.”

Gujarat saw the highest number of deletions among states that underwent the SIR in the second phase with 13.4% of voters (68.12 lakh) removed from the rolls.

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When asked about the Congress’s next move, Chaudhary said, “We made representations to the Chief Electoral Officer back then. Now we will plan our move after Rahulji’s (Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi) press conference.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was in Gujarat on a two-day tour on September 10-11 when he spoke extensively about the SIR.

As reported in The Indian Express, Kumar had said there were “zero appeals filed against deletions” in the 12 states where the SIR process was complete before district collectors.