AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday alleged that the Special Intensive Revision ( SIR) of electoral rolls was a “backdoor NRC”, claiming that the exercise would eventually be used as a basis for implementing the National Register of Citizens ( NRC).
Owaisi, while reacting to the Opposition parties’ protest over the Election Commission’s functioning, said that the issue of standing “shoulder-to-shoulder” with other parties would be decided in the future, but reiterated his opposition to the SIR exercise.
“Whether we stand shoulder-to-shoulder or not is a matter for the future. However, we have been saying from the very beginning that SIR is a ‘backdoor NRC’. I reiterate that the country’s Home Minister has constituted a commission-headed by a retired Supreme Court judge-tasked with examining the demographic changes in areas where the final NRC was implemented; the Home Minister has stated that they will review the final NRC list,” Owaisi told ANI.
“What does that imply? It proves our point that this is a backdoor NRC; sooner or later, this government will implement the NRC and use this very voter list as the basis. You will find yourself standing in line again, being asked to produce documents. It is causing so much trouble. In my own constituency, I see people whose names are missing and who are facing immense hardship,” he added.
His remarks came amid an ongoing political row over the functioning of the Election Commission following a report by The Indian Express which said that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months regarding decisions and procedures related to the SIR exercise.
Meanwhile, the Left parties and Trinamool Congress (TMC) have been pushing for a united Opposition front over the functioning of the Election Commission and the SIR exercise.
Former West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, while addressing a rally in Hooghly, demanded the removal of Gyanesh Kumar and alleged that the SIR exercise had been used to target West Bengal.
“Vanish Kumar must go. Until he leaves, our movement continues and will continue. Those who are guilty must be arrested. You have no right to disenfranchise voters, to loot votes,” Banerjee said.
She alleged that under the SIR process, names of voters had been removed and demanded that the exercise be scrapped. “This SIR list must be scrapped. The vote must be held using the old list. And those whose names were forcibly removed must be compensated,” she said.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby called for a wider outreach against the Election Commission’s functioning and said the party had reached out to parties beyond the INDIA bloc. He said the CPI(M) had also written to the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) to build a broader movement.
CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said an INDIA bloc meeting was expected on September 30 to discuss the SIR exercise and issues related to the Election Commission, while suggesting that the discussion should not remain limited to bloc partners.
The controversy intensified after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Gyanesh Kumar of “match-fixing elections”. Gandhi cited a Malayalam news channel report which said that the CEC had approached former Keralam Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson to contest for the BJP.
“First, Gyanesh Kumar – then a serving IAS officer – was used to recruit for the BJP. Then Modi and Shah made him the umpire and put him in charge of match-fixing India’s elections,” Gandhi said on X.
The remark came after the Congress’s Keralam unit posted the Asianet report on X saying, “Big revelation on Gyanesh Kumar. Former Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson says Gyanesh Kumar approached him and asked him to contest on a BJP ticket, even offering a ministerial position. Who was Gyanesh Kumar to make such an offer? On whose authority was he speaking? And why was the Election Commissioner allegedly involved in political recruitment for BJP back in 2016?”
Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar also demanded the removal of Gyanesh Kumar and called for a re-verification.
The Election Commission, however, has maintained that all decisions related to the SIR exercise were taken with the “unanimous approval of the Commission”.
The poll body also clarified that a letter sent to the Cabinet Secretary, which had drawn scrutiny, was related to the functioning of an officer on deputation and not any policy matter of the Commission.