CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Tuesday strongly refuted the Election Commission’s (EC) claim that foreign nationals have been identified in Bihar during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Calling the assertion "bewildering," Bhattacharya, who is also one of the petitioners challenging the SIR in the Supreme Court, alleged that the entire exercise has created chaos in the state and is designed to manipulate the upcoming assembly elections in favour of the BJP-led NDA.
Addressing a press conference, Bhattacharya questioned the basis of the EC’s claims. “We would like to know if any such complaints of foreign nationals being on the voters’ list were received during last year’s summary revision conducted before the Lok Sabha elections. Even the BJP hadn’t made such a claim back then. So where have these alleged foreign nationals suddenly come from?” he asked.
He further pointed out that in a 2019 submission to Parliament, the Narendra Modi-led government had acknowledged receiving only three such complaints of foreigners being listed as voters. Bhattacharya alleged that the SIR could be wrongly identifying members of vulnerable communities, including Dalits like the Mushahar, as illegal immigrants. He specifically raised concern that some of them might be wrongly labelled as Myanmarese nationals.
The EC has reportedly found immigrants from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar residing in Bihar. Bhattacharya warned against sweeping generalisations, particularly in the case of Nepalese nationals, highlighting the complexities of familial and social ties along the Indo-Nepal border. He also condemned what he described as communal profiling, saying, “Muslim migrant labourers are being branded as Bangladeshis. Earlier, Bengali-speaking migrants faced such harassment, but now even Hindi-speaking workers from Bihar are being targeted.”
Criticising the EC's handling of the process, he claimed that despite assurances of adequate manpower, reports indicate that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are overworked and stretched thin. He added that the EC had promised that every voter would receive two copies of the enumeration forms—one to submit and the other for personal records—but in reality, very few have received more than one copy.
Also Read: Over 6.6 cr Bihar voters file forms before SIR deadline
Bhattacharya also flagged the EC’s inaction on the Supreme Court’s suggestion to accept Aadhaar and ration cards as valid identity documents in the SIR process. “Days have passed since the court’s advice, but the EC has not included those documents. As a result, millions of voters could be left at the mercy of Election Registration Officers who now have broad discretion over accepting or rejecting applications,” he said. The CPI(ML) leader said the party had raised these concerns directly with the EC. Interestingly, the commission has now invited all political parties to send their delegations separately, he added. “We will restate what we’ve already told them—that this revision process has created widespread confusion and should be stopped. The assembly elections should be conducted using last year’s Lok Sabha voter list,” he asserted.
Calling the SIR a political ploy, Bhattacharya said, “This is nothing but vote-bandi, just like note-bandi during demonetisation. The aim is to steal the elections in favour of the ruling coalition. Similar tactics were used in Maharashtra.” However, he expressed confidence that the plan would not succeed in Bihar. “People here are aware. They are already chanting slogans like ‘chunav chor, gaddi chhor’ (stealer of elections, vacate power),” he said.
Bhattacharya also condemned the filing of an FIR against journalist Ajit Anjum, whose YouTube channel has been running a series on the SIR process. He also criticized the alleged mistreatment of Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson, who had visited East Champaran to support the opposition alliance, the Mahagathbandhan. “These incidents only prove that the BJP-led coalition does not respect freedom of expression—a cornerstone of any democracy,” Bhattacharya concluded.
Also Read: Names of foreign nationals found in Bihar voter list
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