'May Miss Crores Of Names': Asaduddin Owaisi Over 'Rushed' Bihar Poll Roll Revision

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has expressed scepticism about the Election Commission's plan of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar. He has warned that the revision might disenfranchise crores of voters of the state.

Questioning the feasibility of the process, emphasising that it was nearly impossible for booth-level officers to update the records of crores of voters in such a short timeframe: "You (EC) want this whole process to be done in one month. How is it possible? How can you do it in one month? What is the rationale for that?"

Mr Owaisi, in an interview with NDTV, also warned that the revision may result in crores of names being missed from the voter list.

"You can't rush and undo it. And tomorrow, if the elections are held and I am sure that many names will be missed. Who will take the blame? It is impossible to do it (in such a short period of time) and my apprehension is that not just thousands, but lakhs, maybe names of crores of people that will be missing from the voter list and they will be disenfranchised," he said.

He also cited the Lal Babu Hussein case in which the Supreme Court ruled that a person who is already enrolled in the voter list cannot be removed without notice and due process.

The Bihar assembly elections are scheduled to take place at the end of this year, while the SIR exercise was notified on June 24.

Strongly criticising the process, Mr Owaisi said that "voters stand to lose" in this.

"The majority of the youth of Bihar have migrated. They migrate because of economic reasons to Punjab, to Kerala, to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and most of the seemanchal area is cut off for nearly six months due to flooding. Now, you want to do it in one month... How many times will the BLA come to your house? Maybe he will come once, twice and thrice. That is quite shocking that the ECI is doing it," he said.

"You have around 8 crore voters (in Bihar). How is it possible for the BLA to do it in one month? It is humanly impossible," the AIMIM chief added.

All recognised national and state political parties have appointed 1,54,977 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to aid in the revision process, with the option to appoint more agents as the work progresses.

Earlier, the Hyderabad MP recalled the last Intensive Revision conducted for Bihar in 2003, and said it took place well ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and the 2005 Assembly polls, which gave reasonable time for electors to seek legal remedies for addition or deletion.

The revision plan has met with severe criticism from leaders of several INDIA bloc who have also raised concerns over its timing.

Leaders from 11 parties, including the Congress, RJD, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, NCP-SP and the Samajwadi Party, put forth their objections before Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other election commissioners to the special scrutiny of the voters' list.

Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said a minimum of two crore persons may be disenfranchised in this exercise as many, especially, the SCs, STs, migratory and impoverished, among the nearly eight crore voters in Bihar may not be in a position to present their and their parents' birth certificates to the poll authorities in such a short period.