Chandigarh, 24 September (H.S.): Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today demanded suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Punjab till the next assembly elections scheduled in six months from now.

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 PCC president disclosed 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 up for registering as voters. He demanded that the provision of reference to their (first time voters’) parents or grandparents in the previous electoral roll is the most difficult condition to fill.

Warring said that while the Congress party has persistently been maintaining that the SIR in its current form was nothing but a blatant and an unabashed attempt to “disenfranchise” lakhs of voters, whom the 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 remarked.

He said, 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”, he said, while asserting that the SIR should be suspended till the elections and carried out afterwards with due transparency and without any complexities.

Hindusthan Samachar / GURSHARAN SINGH