Discussion Underway in Lok Sabha on Election Reforms

 The Lok Sabha has taken up discussion on election reforms. Initiating the discussion, Manish Tewari of Congress said the Election Commission should table the reasons for carrying out SIR. He said, SIR is ongoing in many states in the country, but the Election Commission has no legal justification to hold SIR. Mr Tewari claimed that the Constitution does not provide for Special Intensive Revision SIR of Electoral Rolls. He said it was a provision given to the Election Commission. Mr Tewari also suggested that either VVPAT should be counted in full or the country should revert to paper ballots. He suggested that Leader of Opposition Rajya Sabha and Chief Justice of India should be added to the committee to choose the Election Commission.

Sanjay Jaiswal of BJP said that the Opposition is raising the issue of SIR to distract people from their heavy losses in the recently concluded Bihar elections. He said, the first instance of vote-chori happened in 1947 when the whole Congress Working Committee was with Sardar Patel, yet he was not made the Prime Minister. He said, 1975 Emergency and 1987 Kashmir elections are examples of vote chori of Congress party.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said that the reforms are possible only if the Election Commission is unbiased. He suggested moving back to ballot papers for voting. Mr Yadav asked if more technologically advanced nations like Germany and the United States are voting by paper then why India is using EVMs.

Kalyan Banerjee of Trinamool Congress alleged that because of the work pressure placed due to the SIR exercise, many BLOs in different parts of the country have lost their lives.

Union Minister and JD (U) leader Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh said the Election Commission is undertaking the Special Intensive Revision SIR of electoral rolls and it is doing the right thing. He said, the whole world has seen that elections in India are conducted in an impartial manner. He took on the opposition saying if they win in certain States, EVM is alright and when they lose, there is a problem in the EVMs.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Desai said that the anti-defection law has been toothless. He said EVMs should be replaced by ballot papers. NCP (SCP) leader Supriya Sule spoke about violence and corruption during the elections.

RJD MP Abhay Kumar Sinha questioned the conduct of elections in Bihar. He demanded that there should be independent verification of VVPATs.