Oppn parties meet top MP poll official seeking exclusion of RSS-linked personnel from SIR process

Bhopal, Nov 7 (PTI) Several parties on Friday met Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjeev Kumar Jha and submitted a memorandum demanding that government employees and officials associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should not be made part of the process of Special Intensive Revision of the state's electoral list.

Booth Level Officers (BLOs) associated with RSS should also not be involved in SIR, the seven-page memorandum of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Samajwadi Party, Samanta Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal said.

"Such employees' ideological leanings are hostile towards minorities and socially disadvantaged communities, causing fear that these groups might be deprived of their voting rights. Moreover, no household address must be left blank. If a house has more than 10 voters, their physical verification should be done in the presence of authorised representatives of political parties," the statement said.

The delegation further demanded that for women married after 2003, their husband's documents and marriage certificate should be accepted as valid identification instead of documents from their parental home.

Furthermore, it also sought the presence of a woman employee with every Booth Level Officer (BLO) to facilitate interaction with women voters.

The delegation cited that while Bihar's gender ratio is 935 women per 1,000 men, the ratio in that state's voter list stands at 895 females (per 1000 men), and said such disparity should not occur in Madhya Pradesh.

The list of deleted voters must be displayed publicly with reasons so that affected persons can reapply for inclusion, it added.

The CEO assured the delegation that any complaint of discrimination by officials would be acted upon.

The delegation included MP CPI (M) secretary Jaswinder Singh, CPI state secretary Shailendra Kumar Shaili, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party state secretary Ajay Srivastava, CPI(M) district secretary Tej Kumar Tigga and Deepak Paswan.

The Election Commission (EC) on October 27 announced that it will conduct phase two of SIR of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union territories -- the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- between November and February. PTI LAL BNM