Door to door of over half a million volunteers and workers
Today in India, amidst much controversy, the broad campaign for the general revision of the electoral lists, called “Special intensive revision (Sir)” began, which will affect 12 states of the Indian Union in the next three months.
The “census” will see tens of thousands of public employees and another half million volunteers, officially appointed by the Electoral Commission, to go door to door to check that voters are actually registered on the lists and to cancel any non-eligible voters. NGOs and opposition parties argue that the revision is an attempt to reduce the electoral body to benefit the government. A first tranche of intensive electoral review was carried out in recent months in the central state of Bihar, in view of the elections for the renewal of the local legislative assembly, which will begin in two days; the revision in Bihar led to the cancellation of 6.5 million voters suspected of being “illegal immigrants”.
The campaign launched today must end on February 7th and will affect important states that will go to elections next year, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu. MK Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has strongly opposed the revision, calling it “a scam to erase eligible voters” and has lodged a challenge to the Supreme Court on its validity, saying that “the right to vote is at risk”.
