Amrinder Singh Raja Warring questions timing of SIR exercise ahead of Pb polls

Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has questioned the timing of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Punjab when the state was headed for assembly elections less than 10 months from now.Reacting to the announcement by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the matter, Warring said Punjab could have waited till the elections to assure the people that there was no hidden agenda behind the SIR in the state."Bihar and West Bengal elections have proved it beyond any doubt that the BJP govt at the Centre, with the help of a compliant ECI, can swing the electoral outcome in its favour with the fraudulent exercise of SIR of electoral rolls," he observed while noting that Punjab was headed for elections within less than 10 months, maybe earlier. "What is the urgency to hold this exercise here?" he alleged.The PCC president asked why the SIR exercise was not carried out in Punjab along with states like Uttar Pradesh and Goa, where it was held six months ago, as these two states are also scheduled to go for elections at the same time as Punjab.He alleged that in the case of Bengal, 27 lakh genuine voters were disenfranchised. "Since there was not enough time, their appeals for inclusion in the voter list were not settled before the elections. They lost the right to vote," he said, while cautioning against repeating the same process here."The ECI wants to repeat the same exercise in Punjab," he said, adding, "We are confident that we will defeat their design." He said the party had asked its rank and file to ensure that not a single genuine voter was denied the right to vote with this fraudulent SIR exercise.Warring also appealed to other political parties in the state to beware and keep their political differences aside and ensure that Punjabi voters were not disenfranchised just ahead of elections because the BJP suspects them not to vote for it. "Let us resolve not to allow the same thing to happen in Punjab as happened in Bihar and Bengal," he remarked.