Key Points

According to the sources, the ECI has called a meeting of all the state Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) in Delhi on September 10 and will have a discussion at length on this matter.

The meeting will be attended by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, election commissioners and other senior poll body officers.

It is pertinent to note here that the SIR drive conducted in Bihar had become a political battle in Bihar, with opposition parties, including RJD, Congress, CPI, CPM, TMC, SP, among others, criticised the poll panel for working against the mandate of the commission by deleting a large number of voters, mainly from the downtrodden spectrum.

Similarly, as polls are due next year in the states- West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, the poll panel, according to the reports, is likely to conduct the SIR in the whole country, which is likely to reignite a political battle between the ruling and the opposition parties.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu's CM Stalin have expressed their opposition to the SIR drive, while BJP-ruled states have supported the poll panel.

It may be noted here that CEC last month, in his maiden press conference, dismissed allegations of bias against the poll panel in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, stressing that “some are trying to fool the voters” by spreading confusion and questioning the credibility of both the poll body and the electorate.

Without naming any party, the CEC indirectly responded to the Opposition's claims that the ECI was colluding with the ruling BJP.

“When politics is being done by targeting the voters of India by keeping a gun on the shoulder of the Election Commission, today the Election Commission wants to make it clear that it fearlessly stands like a rock with all voters – poor, rich, elderly, women, youth, and of every religion – without any discrimination,” Gyanesh Kumar had said at a press conference in Delhi.

- IANS