Congress Has Submitted 89 Lakh Complaints To ECI: Pawan Khera On Bihar SIR Exercise

(MENAFN- IANS) New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Hitting out at the Election Commission, senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday said that the grand old party has submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise to the poll panel.

Addressing a press conference in Bihar, Khera said: "The EC keeps getting news planted through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to the irregularities in the SIR to the EC.”

He also accused the poll panel of not registering their complaints via Booth level Agents (BLAs).

"When our BLAs went to file complaints, their complaints were turned down by the EC. The poll body categorically told our BLAs that complaints could be accepted by individuals only, not by political parties,” the Congress leader said.

“It seems that CEC Gyanesh Kumar might have received an order on not to register complaints via political parties,” he said.

"We also want elections to be conducted smoothly. We want that no wrong person remains on the voter list and no rightful person's name is removed. This is everyone's responsibility -- yours, ours, and most importantly, the Election Commission's. We hope that the Election Commission verifies all the data we have provided and conducts a door-to-door recheck,” he added.

It is pertinent to note here that the poll panel on Sunday while announcing that only one day remains for filing claims and objections on the draft electoral roll of 7.24 crore electors said in its daily bulletin that -- 25 claims for inclusion and 103 objections for exclusion were filed.

At the individual level, citizens have been more active. The Commission reported receiving 33,326 claims for inclusion and 2,07,565 objections for exclusion, of which 38,342 have already been disposed of, it said.

Similarly, the Bihar CEO on Sunday clarified that the draft rolls published under the SIR 2025 are provisional in nature and explicitly meant for public scrutiny.

“Any alleged duplication at this stage cannot be construed as a final error,” the statement read, stressing that the law provides for objections, verification, and correction before final publication.

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