Chandigarh, Sep 24 — Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Thursday demanded suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state till the Assembly elections due in next six months.
He also demanded that the elections should be conducted based on the existing electoral rolls, which were made the base for the 2024 general elections, without any deletions.
He said this was the only way to ensure that no genuine voter is denied the precious right to vote.
The State Congress President in a statement said that thousands of genuine and deserving first-time voters were being denied the franchise due to the severe complexities in the new Form 6, which they need to fill for registering as voters.
He demanded that the provision of reference to their parents or grandparents in the previous electoral roll for the first-time voters is the most difficult condition to fill.
Warring said that while the Congress has persistently been saying that the SIR in its current form was nothing but a blatant and an unabashed attempt to "disenfranchise" lakhs of voters, whom the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suspects not to be its supporters, the recent revelations have only vindicated the party's apprehensions.
"This has shaken the faith of the people in the fairness of elections," he added.
He said that while the draft electoral rolls for Punjab are yet to be released, there are indications and apprehensions that the names of lakhs of voters are being deleted from the electoral rolls.
"This will be the travesty of justice and electoral democracy that a large section of voters is disenfranchised just a few months ahead of the elections," Warring added, while asserting that the SIR should be suspended till the Assembly elections and carried out afterwards with due transparency and without any complexities.