Opposition leaders have criticised the Election Commission after reports said it has decided to direct chief electoral officers of all states to begin preparing for a special intensive revision of electoral rolls on the lines of the exercise being conducted in Bihar.

The commission had written to all state polling chiefs on July 5, directing them to complete “pre-revision activities”, The Indian Express reported on Sunday.

The activities include rationalisation of polling stations, filling vacant positions of key officials and supervisors who will carry out the enumeration, and conducting training, the newspaper reported.

The Opposition said on Sunday that the poll panel should wait for the Supreme Court to decide on the challenges to the voter roll revision taking place in Bihar before replicating the exercise in other states.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court urged the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards and ration cards as valid documents for the revision of electoral rolls. The court will hear the case further on July 28.

Commenting on the commission’s decision to prepare for a nationwide voter roll revision, Congress leader KC Venugopal said that the Bharatiya Janata Party had “mastered the art of taking a bad idea and making it worse”.

“As if the chaos and opposition to the Bihar SIR was not enough, the BJP-controlled ECI now wants to subject the entire country through this trauma,” Venugopal said on social media. “Every Indian citizen will be looked at with suspicion, their voting rights will be under threat, and the whole electoral system will be rigged.”

The Election Commission must shelve proposals seeking a nationwide voter roll revision immediately, said the Congress leader.

Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi told The Indian Express that the commission’s decision was “effectually meaningless because everything will depend on the outcome of the pending case” in the Supreme Court.

In the case before the Supreme Court, Singhvi is representing the petitioners who have challenged the voter roll revision in Bihar.

“Not only on [July] 28, but on a few dates thereafter,” the Congress leader was quoted as saying. “Depending on that outcome alone, everything else will proceed or not proceed. Merely giving jingoistic statements is meaningless...”

Trinamool Congress leader Sagarika Ghose said the poll panel must answer “if it is preparing a citizen’s register” in the name of electoral roll revision, the newspaper reported. “…This is an NRC [National Register of Citizens] from the backdoor,” Ghose was quoted as saying.

“…This is a malafide exercise targeting the poorest and most vulnerable,” the Rajya Sabha MP was quoted as saying.

Communist Party of India leader D Raja was quoted as saying that the Election Commission must explain why it is in a “hurry” to carry out a nationwide exercise while the Supreme Court is hearing the matter.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on July 6 defended the exercise, claiming that the exercise had to be carried out as no one was satisfied with the current voter rolls.

Revision of voter rolls

The revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar was announced by the Election Commission on June 24.

As part of the exercise, persons whose names were not on the 2003 voter list will need to submit proof of eligibility to vote. This means that 2.9 crore out of the state’s 7.8 crore voters – or about 37% of the electors – will have to submit documentary evidence.

Voters born before July 1, 1987, must show proof of their date and place of birth, while those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, must also submit documents establishing the date and place of birth of one of their parents. Those born after December 2, 2004, will need proof of date of birth for themselves and both parents.

If the officers are satisfied with the details provided, the voters will be re-enrolled to a new voter list by electoral registration officers. If not, they will be removed from the voter lists.

About 80.1% electors in Bihar had submitted their enumeration forms as part of the exercise, the Election Commission said on Saturday.

A draft roll will be published on August 1 and the final roll will be out on September 30. Bihar is expected to head for Assembly polls in October or November.

On July 2, eleven INDIA bloc parties told the Election Commission that the revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls risked disenfranchising more than 2.5 crore voters, as they may not be able to produce the necessary documents.

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