Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 5: The Congress party on Sunday accused the Election Commission of deliberately removing names of Dalit and Muslim women voters from the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar during the recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

At a press conference in the capital, All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba claimed that nearly 22.7 lakh women voters were removed, primarily in six districts across 60 constituencies, which she said were crucial battlegrounds during the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections. According to Lamba, the deleted names are part of a "well-planned conspiracy" to swing the balance in favour of the ruling NDA alliance.

Lamba further alleged that over 38 lakh voters in total — including 15 lakh men — were removed, specifically those the BJP “fears will vote against it.”

“Most of those removed are Dalit and Muslim women,” she said, accusing the Election Commission of enabling “vote theft” to influence the upcoming election outcome.

She also questioned the legitimacy of the electoral revision process. “If these voters were deemed bogus now, then shouldn’t the 2024 general elections in these areas be invalidated and redone?” she asked.

Lamba said the Congress will launch a nationwide campaign against what she termed as “systematic disenfranchisement,” and announced that the party will submit five crore signatures to the Election Commission on October 15 to protest voter deletions.

In a separate statement, Lamba also condemned a reported incident in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, where a pregnant Muslim woman was allegedly denied treatment at a hospital — further linking it to broader concerns of discrimination and bias.