Rohit Pawar questions who decided on SIR, cites Election Commission's RTI reply

Pressure is mounting on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The Cockroach Janta Party and the Indian National Congress have taken an aggressive line in demanding his resignation. Rohit Pawar, MLA of the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, has also opened a front against Kumar. He called a press conference today and addressed the media directly.

Under the title "SIR - Exploits of the Election Commission", Pawar showed some slides and levelled serious allegations once again. His question was who had actually taken the decision on SIR. He said information on this had been sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and that the Commission's reply contained some startling points.

Citing a newspaper report, Pawar raised several questions. He said the issue was who decided to run such a large SIR exercise across the country, when it was decided, and on the basis of which studies. The RTI reply says the Election Commission did not take any decision to start the SIR process. The minutes of the meeting held on this, what was discussed at it, when it took place, and the records of the approval of SIR are also not available. According to Pawar, the Cabinet Secretary has also said that the government too has not taken any decision on SIR. On this basis, he questioned the Commission's reply.

Questioning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, Pawar alleged that 13 crore voters were arbitrarily removed from the rolls in the country without any solid evidence. He objected to the manner in which names were deleted and also questioned the working of the Election Commission.

At the press conference, Pawar presented figures received from the Election Commission. According to these, the number of voters who have permanently moved elsewhere is 6.30 crore nationwide, of which Maharashtra accounts for 76.76 lakh. Voters who are absent or untraceable number 3.01 crore in the country, against 75.41 lakh in Maharashtra. There are 2.80 crore voters recorded as dead in the country, and 34.82 lakh in Maharashtra. Voters with duplicate entries number 1.02 crore in the country and 17.66 lakh in Maharashtra. Citing these figures, he alleged that 13 crore voters were removed across the country during SIR.

Pawar also gave some examples. He showed a voter ID card bearing a photograph of former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, but claimed that the name printed on the card was "Abhilasha Kumari". He asked why such errors were not corrected during SIR, or why they did not come to the Commission's notice.

Pawar called Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar a corrupt person and said it was evident that corruption had taken place during his tenure. He made these allegations in connection with a case from Kumar's time as a civil servant in Kerala. In 2006, Kumar, an officer of the Kerala cadre, was Secretary in the state's Public Works Department. During that period, Lee Bin Sin, a Malaysian project officer, died by suicide. Referring to the incident, Pawar demanded an inquiry into the matter and said that after the investigation the necessary action should be taken.