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New Delhi, Oct 25 (IANS) Congress MP Manikam Tagore on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging that the Special Intensive Review (SIR) drive is being run as a “tool to harass the poor and manipulate voter lists under the influence of BJP”.
Earlier on October 23, the ECI had announced that it had held one-on-one interactions with the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of poll-bound states and Union Territories – Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal – as part of a two-day conference at the India International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi.
Reacting sharply to the development, Tagore said, “SIR is a tool to harass the poor and remove votes of the elderly. This is being done on the instructions of the BJP and Amit Shah. Now, they are planning to do the same in Tamil Nadu. This is being done not to correct the voter list but to remove innocent voters and harass the public. The ECI does not want to work with integrity.”
The Congress leader also reacted to Union Food Processing Industries Minister and LJP (RV) chief Chirag Paswan’s remarks against the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Paswan had accused the RJD of exploiting the Muslim community for votes and denying them vital political representation, urging the community to “break free from the captive vote bank mentality”.
Questioning the LJP (RV) chief’s stance, Tagore said, “I don’t know why Chirag Paswan said this when he is always with anti-Muslim Amit Shah. Being with such people, you are talking about Muslim voters – this is something you should think about. Now that he has become a Union minister, everyone knows how he has sacrificed his principles to get that post.”
Saying that the grand alliance will form the next government, Tagore said, “When the grand alliance wins, we will take all communities along. There will also be a deputy chief minister from the Congress, and then the party will take appropriate decisions after the elections. Chirag Paswan should refrain from making such statements, and the minority community should know that Chirag is making such comments while being in alliance with Muslim opponents.”
–IANS
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