New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram called out massive voter deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, but conceded there is no solid evidence proving the exercise decided outcome of the assembly election in the state.
Even as his own party marches against the CEC, his restraint stands in contrast to the storm surrounding the SIR, where deleted voters, stalled appeals and unprecedented internal rift have left the Election Commission (EC) facing serious questions. “They (the EC) have removed them (voters). That is wrong. Voter deletions have taken place in several states during different rounds of the SIR. Chidambaram referred to West Bengal while explaining why he believes the deletion of names is a serious issue that needs to be addressed separately from the question of election results. He stated that there were genuine problems with electoral rolls and that some voters might have been wrongly removed.
Because of voter deletions during the SIR, he said it would not be correct to say that the TVK’s victory or the DMK’s defeat happened. Around 65 lakh names were removed from the roll in the first round, 6.50 crore in the second and 6.10 crore in the third. It took the total deletions to around 13.30 during the exercise. The massive scale of omissions has led to a legal challenge in the Supreme Court where the EC acknowledged that over 13 crore electors were left off draft rolls across the country. The EC has told the apex court that 27.16 lakh voters were deleted from the West Bengal electoral roll during the SIR process and that more than 22 lakh of them have filed appeals seeking restoration of their names. In total, 38.31 lakh appeals have been filed before appellate tribunals, including 16.10 lakh challenges against the inclusion of names. He said that only 1.26 lakh appeals had been disposed of in around six months. He said about 91 per cent of the cases decided so far resulted in the names being added back to the electoral roll.
Speaking to reporters in Sivaganga during protests seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, the former Union minister said it would be wrong to attribute the Tamil Nadu result entirely to alleged voter-list irregularities. Those names should have been included,” he said. “It is not known how crores of people were removed from the list,” Chidambaram said. Fiercely defending the revision, it told the court every modification adhered to established procedure. Establishing that only those deletions decided the election, he said, would require evidence. “It cannot be said that the TVK formed the government because of vote theft,” he said.
The EC has also introduced measures to help voters whose names were left out. The poll panel has suggested increasing the number of appellate tribunals in West Bengal to speed up the process. Chidambaram also addressed the Tamil Nadu election and the claims surrounding the victory of actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). He referred to TVK’s vote share while making the point that the party’s electoral performance could not simply be attributed to voter-list changes. He also referred to alleged voter-list problems in Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka. Recent reports have brought the role of the other two commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, into the dispute. The EC has maintained that its decisions are taken collectively and has described internal differences as part of the decision-making process. It has also ordered a review of its voter-roll software after issues were flagged with the system used for electoral-roll changes. The review will involve a senior election official and an independent technology expert. The Supreme Court has now agreed to hear a petition challenging the functioning of CEC Kumar and the SIR exercise across the country. The petition refers to the objections raised by Sandhu and Joshi and argues that powers vested in the EC cannot be exercised solely by the CEC. Under the process, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) can visit such voters at home to collect documents and upload them to the EC’s system. The EC took the decision following an uproar after the The Indian Express revealations. The poll watchdog claims the move is aimed at reducing the need for voters to personally visit election offices.
Data shows that 82,782 appeals had been disposed of by August, with 91 per cent resulting in restoration of names. Referring to the pending cases, he said that at the existing pace it could take around 15 years to finish the process. As of its recent submission to the top court, the data submitted by the EC show that 37,05,235 appeals are still pending. Only 1,26,194 appeals have been decided. The TVK secured around 35 per cent of the vote, according to him. In Delhi, he said, around 2.70 lakh people have been removed from the rolls, and the affected voters are spread across 24 wards. An Indian Express investigation revealed that the two commissioners had raised objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months regarding decisions related to voter registration, electoral-roll procedures and the SIR exercise. The objections included issues involving Form 6, access to voter data and the centralisation of electoral-roll systems.
The Congress leader said that the pace of disposal would make the process extremely long for those still waiting for a decision. He said that three assembly elections and three Lok Sabha polls could take place during such a period, leaving affected voters unable to participate in those elections if their names were not restored in time. Citing Amartya Sen and L K Advani as examples, Chidambaram said names of well-known people had also been removed from electoral rolls. Referring to the controversy in the EC, Chidambaram said that there had been an assumption that all three Election Commissioners were involved in decisions related to the SIR.
