The Congress on Saturday criticized the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list by the Election Commission of India (ECI) alleging that the campaign was a deliberate conspiracy to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar. The party also questioned the required documentation process under this process and argued that the 25-day time-limit given to complete such a comprehensive verification work is unrealistic.
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Congress MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh said in a press conference in New Delhi that the way Aadhaar cards were made, it seemed that it was an important document. Now we cannot vote by showing the same Aadhaar card. The kind of documents (by the Election Commission of India) have been possible that I should get out of the voter list in SIR. The Election Commission of India announced the SIR in Bihar on 24 June, which cited the need to update the voter list due to factors such as rapidly growing urbanization, frequent migration, increasing number of voters voting for the first time, non-reporting of deaths and concerns about “foreign illegal migrants”.
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The campaign includes collecting calculations from about 79 million voters till 25 July. The draft voter list will be published on 1 August and the final list on 30 September after investigation. The Congress MP also criticized the increasing crime in Bihar and claimed that whenever Chief Minister Nitish Kumar forms an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), such incidents increase. He said, “There was a time when the whole of Bihar was known as the land of peace, harmony, knowledge and penance, but today the bullets of goons are spewing fire. On one hand, ADG Law and Order says that increasing attacks on police are a matter of concern. On the other hand, criminals fired bullets near Tejashwi Yadav ji’s residence in Patna, who are still absconding.”