NDA ally Upendra Kushwaha raises concern over SIR in Bihar

Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) leader and NDA ally Upendra Kushwaha on Friday raised concerns regarding the SIR exercise being carried out by the ECI in Bihar. Talking to ET, Kushwaha said the ECI should ensure that no genuine voter is missed out in the voter list.

"Revision of voter lists is nothing new and it has happened in the past too. In my view, the time given by ECI is too short. ECI should have started this exercise one or two years ago considering the population," Kushwaha told ET. He added that Bihar is a state where a lot of people are working in different parts of the country but are voters of Bihar. "There is a fear among the migrant voters that they might be excluded from the voter list. The same fear is also among a large section of people residing in the state," Kushwaha said. "There are several people in Bihar who don't have any of the documents mentioned by the ECI. Now there is a panic among such people that their names will be deleted from the electoral roll."

The RLM leader said that ECI should address these fears.


Kushwaha-led RLM is the first NDA member which has raised questions on the exercise. The Opposition parties in Bihar have expressed their reservations on the exercise in their meeting with the ECI.