– Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: The Congress party has sharply criticized the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of acting as a middleman for the BJP. The party alleged that the ECI is working to disenfranchise 20% of voters in Bihar.
At a press conference held at AICC headquarters on Thursday, senior Congress leaders, including Pawan Khera (Media & Publicity Department Chair), Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar, and AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, expressed concern over the ECI’s role. They said the Commission had lost whatever credibility it had left.
The leaders accused the ECI of targeting around 2 crore voters in Bihar through a Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls before the elections. They said many voters will be unable to provide the documents demanded by the Commission.
Pawan Khera called the SIR a “conspiracy” to strip Bihar’s citizens of their voting rights. He said the ECI is behaving like a puppet of the BJP.
Khera criticized Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for how he treated a delegation from the INDIA bloc, saying the CEC should leave behind a legacy worth remembering—not one that ends up in the “dustbin of history.”
“The way the ECI functions now is a danger to democracy,” Khera warned. He added that it’s not just a threat to the Opposition, but to every Indian voter. He stressed that everyone, including the ECI, must respect constitutional limits.
“With all due respect, I warn the ECI: governments come and go. Why be so submissive to them? Follow the Constitution,” he said. He remarked sarcastically, “So many ‘shahs’ and ‘shahanshahs’ have come and gone.”
Khera also mocked the CEC for allegedly planting media stories via WhatsApp messages.
Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Kumar questioned the ECI’s motives. He said the real purpose of this exercise is to deny basic voting rights to Bihar’s people.
He pointed out that conducting such a large-scale SIR in just one month was practically impossible due to shortage of manpower and resources.
He revealed that the CEC himself admitted that about 20% of voters could be disenfranchised. Kumar said the poor and marginalized would suffer most, as many lack their own and their parents’ birth certificates.
He asked why the Aadhaar card, accepted as proof of identity almost everywhere, is not being accepted for voter verification.
Kumar claimed the real reason for this rushed review is the growing popularity of Congress and Rahul Gandhi in Bihar. He said a recent survey showed high support for Congress, which unsettled the BJP.
Krishna Allavaru called the SIR another “arbitrary decision” of the Modi government. He compared it to demonetisation, GST, lockdown, and the ceasefire with Pakistan. This, he said, was the fifth such arbitrary move.
Allavaru challenged the PM, the Home Minister, and the ECI to show any example in the world where such a massive revision of 8 crore voters was done in just one month.
He said these 8 crore voters had already voted last year in the General Elections. He asked: “What changed in a year that now they’re being asked to produce new documents?”
He also questioned why the ECI is ignoring valid documents like Aadhaar, voter ID, ration card, job card, or driving licence.
Allavaru said the poor, the youth, and the marginalized would be forced to present birth certificates of themselves and their parents. He asked, “Is this a joke?”
