Those who speak untruth should be disqualified, says BJP MP

New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) A BJP member on Tuesday suggested in Lok Sabha that a new provision should be inserted in the election law for the disqualification of any elected member who tells an untruth in public.

Participating in the debate on election reforms in the lower house, MP from Rajasthan P P Chaudhary hit out at the Congress for objecting to the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission, saying the opposition party was allegedly involved in many incidents of "booth capture" since the days of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Chaudhary said it was Congress which never took the initiative for election reforms during its long years in power and had even dismissed over 100 state governments by imposing Article 356.

He said many opposition leaders have been spreading canards about the SIR, which is underway in 12 states and UTs, without any basis or substance.

"I want to suggest that a new provision should be inserted in the Representation of the People Act to ensure that those elected representatives who speak untruth should be disqualified from their membership," he said.

The BJP MP said that if there are irregularities in the voters' list, as claimed by some opposition leaders, that makes for an even stronger case to carry out the verification process of the voters' list.

Aam Aadmi Party MP from Punjab Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer claimed that people's trust in the Election Commission has been eroded due to the "vote theft" and "stealing of people's mandate." "When an elected member joins hands with another party, leaving his own, the people who elect him get cheated. Such practice should be stopped," he said.

Indian Union Muslim League M P Abdussamad Samadani questioned why the EC has been carrying out the SIR "in such a hurry".

"Constitutionally, it is a correct move, but it raises concerns of the possibility of exclusion of genuine voters," he said.

Congress member from Tamil Nadu S Jothimani alleged that SIR is a "manipulative" process and vowed to fight for every vote "to save the democracy".

She also alleged that the EC has reduced the grievance redressal mechanism, as it deletes CCTV footage of a polling station after 45 days of the results.

Claiming that the votes of several hundred people were deleted from the voters' list in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai demanded that action be taken against officials who are responsible for such an omission. PTI ACB ACB AMJ AMJ