SIR targets PDA voters; CEC must be removed: SP

• SP MP Harendra Malik calls the Special Intensive Revision a “direct assault” on backward classes, Dalits and minorities.

• He claims the exercise is being used to delete marginalised communities’ names from electoral rolls.

• Malik backs a resolution against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at an INDIA bloc programme.

Samajwadi Party MP Harendra Malik on Saturday described the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as a “direct assault” on backward classes, Dalits and minorities, claiming the exercise was being used to strip voters from these communities of their place on the rolls.

Speaking at the INDIA bloc’s “public impeachment” programme, Malik supported a resolution moved by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. He demanded Kumar’s removal, saying it was necessary to protect the Constitution and democracy.

Malik rejected the characterisation of SIR as a routine administrative exercise, accusing those conducting it of attempting to influence elections.

“The SIR is not a standard procedure; it is an attempt to influence elections through ‘match-fixing.’ It is a direct assault on the ‘PDA,’” he said.

PDA, a political formulation coined by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, stands for pichhda, or backward classes, Dalits and alpsankhyak, or minorities.

Malik claimed that names belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minority communities were being deleted from electoral rolls. He argued that marginalised and vulnerable groups were bearing a disproportionate burden of the revision exercise.

“If the Constitution and democracy are to be saved, the chief election commissioner must be removed,” he said.

Supporting the opposition resolution, Malik stressed that impartial election administration and the protection of voting rights were fundamental to democracy.

The supplied account did not include a response from Kumar or the Election Commission to Malik’s statements.

With PTI inputs