An all-party meeting held on Wednesday decided to legally challenge the implementation of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala.
This comes after all parties except the BJP supported the government’s decision in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
According to an official statement after the meeting, Vijayan informed the participants that the government would seek a legal opinion on challenging the SIR, keeping in mind the impending local body elections in the state. Since the electoral rolls prepared for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are currently valid, conducting an SIR using the 2002 voters’ list as the primary document is “unscientific”, the statement said.
Representatives of all parties except the BJP expressed concern about using the 2002 lists as a base. Leader of the Opposition V D Sathisan told the meeting that if the state government approaches the Supreme Court against the SIR, the Opposition will intervene in the matter. Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Minister M V Govindan told the media that SIR’s behavior was “unconstitutional and anti-democratic”.
The Election Commission of India has already started the SIR process in Kerala. Last month, the state legislature unanimously passed a resolution against it, saying the process was aimed at indirectly implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“How it is used by those trying to dust off the CAA will be a challenge to democracy. The EC should desist from such actions that would violate fundamental rights and the review of voter lists should be conducted in a transparent manner,” the resolution said.
Kerala Chief Electoral Officer Dr Rathan U Kelkar also urged the Election Commission of India to postpone the process in view of the upcoming local body elections.
(Tags for translation) Kerala
