Patna: Senior Congress functionary and former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh on Sunday criticised the Election Commission (EC) for initiating a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar without consulting political parties. He alleged the move was politically motivated and warned that the opposition might take legal action if their concerns were ignored.Speaking to reporters in Patna, Singh said, “Normally, the EC presents such proposals at an all-party meeting before proceeding, but in this case, there was no consultation. I have never seen anything like this in my 50-year political career.” He questioned how the EC planned to complete such a large-scale exercise within 30 days during the monsoon. “This is impractical,” Singh said.He alleged that the revision was intended to delete names of the poor, labourers, farmers and marginalised communities from the rolls. “Yah jyadati hai… we strongly oppose it,” he added, describing the move as a “gross injustice” to the people of Bihar.He urged all parties to lodge strong objections and revealed he had asked RJD chief Lalu Prasad to speak with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge about convening an urgent INDIA bloc meeting.Earlier, several INDIA bloc netas in Bihar, including Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, CPI-ML’s Dipankar Bhattacharya and Congress state president Rajesh Kumar, held a joint press conference in Patna, alleging the SIR was designed to favour the NDA.“Why does the EC suddenly need to complete SIR in 25 days when it has not done so in 22 years?” Tejashwi asked. Warning of deeper consequences, he said striking off names could be the first step to denying welfare benefits. “There are 3 crore migrant workers outside Bihar and they won’t have time to prove their identity,” he said.
