Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday stated that the Election Commission’s “abuse of power” must be met with a political and legal fight, alleging that the constitutional authority is trying to change the electoral character and patterns of states.
The statement comes as the row over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar intensifies. The former home minister said the Bihar voter revision exercise is getting curiouser and curiouser, Chidambaram said in a post on X.
“While 65 lakh voters are in danger of being disenfranchised in Bihar, reports of "adding" 6.5 lakh persons as voters in Tamil Nadu is alarming and patently illegal.
Calling them "permanently migrated" is an insult to the migrant workers and a gross interference in the right of the electorate of Tamil Nadu to elect a government of its choice” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
He asked why should the migrant worker not return to Bihar or his/her home state to vote in the State Assembly election, as they usually do.
"Does not the migrant worker return to Bihar at the time of the Chhath puja festival?" he said.
"A person to be enrolled as a voter must have a fixed and permanent legal home. The migrant worker has such a home in Bihar (or another state). How can he/she be enrolled as a voter in Tamil Nadu?" Chidambaram said.
If the migrant worker's family has a permanent home in Bihar and lives in Bihar, how can the migrant worker be considered as "permanently migrated" to Tamil Nadu, he asked.
"The ECI is abusing its powers and trying to change the electoral character and patterns of States. This abuse of powers must be fought politically and legally," Chidambaram said.
In the Monsoon Parliamentary sessions, the opposition has been protesting the SIR in both houses, alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at "disenfranchising voters" in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections.
