CM dares Cong, RJD to prove deletions in SIR
PATNA, Sept. 28 -- Bihar chief minister Samrat Choudhary on Sunday rejected opposition allegations of irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, challenging Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to identify even one eligible voter whose name was wrongly deleted.
Speaking to journalists at the CM Secretariat, Choudhary said that the Opposition had cited names of individuals and families allegedly removed from the rolls, but the Election Commission found that none of the names claimed to have been present in the 2003 rolls had been wrongly deleted.
"Both Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav could not prove that even one name among those they cited as having been deleted was actually wrongly removed during the SIR," he said. On Yadav's demand for fresh elections, Choudhary said that the Opposition should first establish that even one genuine voter was wrongly excluded from the electoral rolls.
Choudhary said the SIR followed the same broad process used in Bihar in 2003, when RJD leader Rabri Devi was chief minister. He said 4.96 crore voters had been covered in that exercise.
According to Choudhary, Bihar had around 7.89 crore voters before the latest SIR, during which nearly 60 lakh names were removed. Of these, 22.24 lakh were of deceased persons, 36.28 lakh had shifted to other states and around seven lakh were duplicate entries, he said. He added that no applications were received challenging the deletions.
The chief minister said the Election Commission had maintained that decisions on the exercise were taken collectively and that no genuine voter had come forward claiming wrongful deletion....
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