The Election Commission appears to have gifted a persuasive campaign slogan to the Opposition for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls with its hasty and clumsy Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise randomly removing so far as many as 65 lakh voters from the state electoral lists. This has triggered a huge controversy, galvanising the INDIA alliance to organise widespread mass protests now channelised in the Rahul Gandhi-led Vote Adhikar Yatra across the length and breadth of Bihar. With all opposition parties, including those not allied to the INDIA bloc, vociferous in their condemnation of the SIR, any advantage that the BJP and its allies may have hoped to garner from this inexplicable tweaking of the electoral rolls on the eve of the polls looks like it is badly backfiring.

For a vast majority of people, except perhaps the rich and powerful, their vote, whether in state assembly or parliamentary polls, is the most prized possession. Voters have been known to be manipulated on the basis of caste and creed or even with offers of financial incentives. But any attempt to entirely erase them from the electoral list is perceived as a mortal blow since it is only their individual vote and election time that make them feel valued by politicians, bureaucrats and powerful local bigwigs.

Not surprisingly, the compelling apprehension of “Vote Chori” (vote stealing) on the eve of the polls has triggered palpable alarm among voters. This is a heaven-sent boon to the Opposition in Bihar, till recently floundering over whether to........

© Free Press Journal