"ECI has been exposed," says AAP's Saurabh Bhardwaj ahead of Bihar polls

New Delhi [India], July 14 : Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Delhi President Saurabh Bhardwaj on Monday alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is using the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar as a tool to manipulate voter lists ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.
Speaking to ANI, Bhardwaj said that the Commission has been "exposed" in past elections in Delhi, Haryana, and Maharashtra, and accused it of engineering large-scale irregularities in the voters' lists to favour certain outcomes.
"The Election Commission has been exposed in the Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi elections. Before the Delhi election, we proved how to rig the elections; the names of genuine voters were deducted, and thousands of new voters were added. The way the election commission was exposed in Delhi, they knew that this exercise wouldn't work," he told ANI.
Bhardwaj further added, "They are devising methods to manipulate the voter list. This is not a way to conduct elections. This means you are going to decide who will cast the vote and who will win."
Reacting to the same, Independent MP from Purnea, Pappu Yadav, criticised the Election Commission of India, calling it "Dhritrashtra" over their decision to revise electoral rolls in Bihar, and accused them of "not respecting" the Constitution or following Supreme Court advice.
Speaking with ANI, Pappu Yadav said, "The Election Commission has already become 'Dhritarashtra'. They are neither following the Supreme Court's advice nor respecting the Constitution. The Supreme Court advised them and clearly stated that under no circumstances can you decide who is Indian and who is not. Work under the Constitution and include Aadhaar card along with other documents."
Meanwhile, the BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy supports the Election Commission of India on special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it is the responsibility of the poll body to remove any "Bangladeshi or Pakistani" from the voter list.
Supreme Court has allowed EC to continue Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls while advising them to consider allowing Aadhaar, ration cards, and electoral photo identity cards as admissible documents to prove voter identity.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi stated in its order, "We are of the prima facie opinion that in the interest of justice, the Election Commission will also include documents like Aadhaar, Ration Card, Voter ID card, etc. It is for the ECI to decide whether it wants to accept the documents or not, and if it does not, then provide reasons for its decision, which shall be sufficient to satisfy the petitioners. Meanwhile, petitioners are not pressing for an interim stay."
The Election Commission of India (ECI) said that till Saturday evening, 80.11 per cent of electors in Bihar submitted their forms, adding that the commission is moving ahead to complete the collection of Enumeration Forms (EFs) before the stipulated time of July 25.
Bihar elections are expected to be held later this year in October or November; however, ECI has not announced an official date.
While the NDA, consisting of the BJP, JD(U), and LJP, will once again be looking to continue their stint in Bihar, the INDIA bloc, consisting of the RJD, Congress, and left parties, will be looking to unseat Nitish Kumar.
In the current Bihar Assembly of 243 members, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) consists of 131 with the BJP having 80 MLAs, JD(U)-45, HAM(S)-4, with the support of two independent candidates.
The Opposition's INDIA Bloc has a strength of 111 members with RJD leading with 77 MLAs, Congress-19, CPI(ML)-11, CPI(M)-2 and CPI-2.