Kharge Calls for Halting Electoral Roll Revision

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called for stopping the revision of electoral rolls, annulling Assembly elections held over the previous two years and using paper ballots in future polls during an address in Patna. His remarks drew a disruption after an exchange with an attendee over Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kharge was speaking at an event marking the 139th birth anniversary of Bihar’s first chief minister, Krishna Singh. He described protests against the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of electoral rolls as a “second war of independence” and urged people to oppose the exercise. He also demanded that it be halted immediately. The Congress leader alleged that electoral manipulation and the deletion of opposition supporters’ names had undermined the voting process. He said governments in West Bengal, Haryana, Bihar and Maharashtra had been formed through “vote chori,” or vote theft, and called for them to be removed. These were Kharge’s allegations; the reports of his speech did not establish electoral wrongdoing as an independently verified finding. Kharge said those responsible for alleged vote theft would face legal consequences if the central government...