New Delhi, Oct 15 The Congress on Thursday took a swipe at the Election Commission after it emerged that the poll body will provide “readable” electoral rolls to parties for the first time, saying the “U-turn” was “too little, too late”.
The opposition party slammed Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and said the damage he had done under “Modi-Shah’s instructions” will not be undone by now doing a “U-turn” via notification.
“Gyanu, it’s not enough bro. You must resign and turn approver. The damage you have done under Modi-Shah’s instructions will not be undone by now doing a U-Turn via notification,” Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said.
“We have been demanding machine readable voter rolls since 2025. Transparency is the bare minimum, not something that absolves you of past crimes,” he said on X.
The massive “vote chori” that has disenfranchised 13 crore Indians is an “act of treason”, he claimed.
“You must step aside and there must be a wholesale reform in the electoral process, beginning with a reversal of the dubious SIR and a change in the EC’s appointments process,” Venugopal said.
“Too little, too late,” he added.
The Election Commission on Thursday ordered holding the annual special summary revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union territories, including those where assembly polls are due “early next year”.
The final rolls in these states and Union territories will be published on January 4.
A senior EC functionary explained that SSR is an annual exercise mandated under election law. It is specially held in poll-bound states.
In these 17 states, SIR of voters’ list has been completed. In Assam, a special revision instead of SIR had taken place due to legal reasons.
For the first time, parties will be shared with “readable” electoral rolls at draft and final stages in both hard and soft versions.
Candidates in poll-bound states will also be shared draft and final rolls.
Rolls will also be made available for sale by the ERO to other persons before the elections.
To ensure inclusion of youth, those turning 18 on or before January 1 next, will be encouraged to fill enrolment forms. This will help them become voters ahead of polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab.
(PTI News)
