Bihar protests against EC’s voter list revision

Patna: Protests erupted across Bihar on Wednesday against the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls even as the Supreme Court agreed to hear one more plea challenging the poll panel’s move.

Top leaders of the Opposition Mahagathbandhan, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, converged in Patna for the protests.

Burning tyres were seen on highways in several parts of Bihar, throwing traffic out of gear in districts such as Muzaffarpur, Nawada, Arwal, Jehanabad and Darbhanga. In many of these districts, the demonstrations were led by local MLAs belonging to RJD, Congress and the three Left parties. The INDIA bloc, of which the Mahagathbandhan is a part, is supporting the Bharat Bandh called in protest against the four labour codes, but in Bihar the Opposition coalition has chosen to also highlight its reservations against the Election Commission’s move, which threatens to disenfranchise crores of voters with barely months to go for the Bihar Assembly elections.

The RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, The CPI’s D. Raja, the CPM’s M.A. Baby and the CPI(ML)’s Dipankar Bhattacharya joined Rahul Gandhi in a giant procession that started from the Income Tax crossing in the Bihar capital, a stone’s throw from landmarks such as Patna High Court and offices of many political parties. The leaders stood atop an open vehicle amid a vast sea of workers of the parties as the crowd marched to the Election Commission’s office, about one-and-half kilometres away.

The administration had put up barricades in front of the Vidhan Sabha premises near the EC office, where the leaders addressed the gathering.

Rahul accused the Election Commission “comprising persons nominated by the BJP” of “serving” the party in power and not the people.

He accused the poll panel of trying to “replicate the Maharashtra model” in Bihar by tampering with the electoral rolls. Rahul had blamed what he called manipulation of electoral rolls for the unexpected landslide victory of the BJP-led coalition in the Maharashtra Assembly polls months after the BJP-led coalition was thrashed in the Lok Sabha elections.

“The EC has hatched a conspiracy to deprive people, mostly Dalits and other vulnerable sections, of their voting rights,” alleged Pappu , whose constituency is in the Seemanchal region which the BJP alleges is teeming with “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh and Myanmar, accommodated by parties with an eye on “vote bank”.