Twenty-three Opposition parties have sent a letter to Chief Justice Surya Kant raising concerns about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, the Congress said on Tuesday.
The exact contents of the letter were not immediately known.
Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose told ANI that the Opposition has urged the judiciary to look into the manner in which the exercise is “being manipulated” by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The parties also alleged “biased” conduct by the Election Commission in the letter, The Hindu reported.
The decision to write to the chief justice was taken at the INDIA bloc meeting on June 8.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Aam Aadmi Party, which had skipped the Opposition alliance meeting, also signed the letter, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said on Tuesday. An Independent MP was also among the signatories.
After the June 8 meeting, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Opposition parties would write to the chief justice about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission in the country, and the alleged “vote loot” and the “stealing of elections”.
The Opposition has for long alleged that the BJP has been colluding with the Election Commission to secure favourable electoral outcomes. It has also alleged that the revision of voter lists was an attempt to undermine democracy.
Scroll’s analysis of the West Bengal Assembly election results in May found that in half the seats that the BJP won, the total deletions that took place during the voter list revision exercise outnumbered the victory margin.
By April 6, about 91 lakh voters, nearly 11.9% of the electorate before the process began, had been removed from the electoral rolls. Ahead of the Assembly elections in April, about 34 lakh appeals were reportedly pending before the tribunals.
On May 27, the Supreme Court bench headed by Kant upheld the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, saying that the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.
However, the court said that the poll panel’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.
Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.
Also read: A question to ask as the INDIA bloc turns three: Where is it going?
You’ve read Scroll.
Now help sustain it
Scroll is funded by readers, not corporate owners. If you believe our work matters, support our newsroom. Become a member today!
We’re not driven by clicks or corporate interests – just honest, independent reporting. Keep us going. Support Scroll today!