Photo Courtesy: INC Nagaland
Morung Express News
Dimapur | October 30
According to the Dimapur District Congress Committee (DDCC), voters in Dimapur and Chümoukedima are losing their right to vote as an upshot of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The DDCC addressed a press conference in Dimapur on October 30 with the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Observer Banna Gupta in tow.
DDCC President Kutoho Chishi told the press conference that people who have lived and voted in Dimapur for more than two decades are being disenfranchised. He held that expecting families settled in Dimapur and Chümoukedima since 2005 to register in their native villages is unreasonable.
“Dimapur is where people built their livelihoods. After living here for twenty-one years, to tell someone they cannot vote where they reside and must go back to their father's village is out of the question,” he said.
While holding the election commission responsible for rushing the process, he said that clerical errors cannot be treated as grounds for vote deletion.
Chishi asked affected voters not to panic, stating that Congress booth-level agents would help them submit claims and verify records. He also asked colony councils not to treat the exercise as a political contest, and help field workers identify bonafide residents.
AICC Observer Banna Gupta alleged that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is using the government machinery to tilt the electoral field after running into difficulties in state elections.
"Under the pretext of cleaning the rolls, genuine citizens are being denied their constitutional right," Gupta said. He contrasted the Election Commission under TN Seshan with the present Chief Election Commissioner, accusing the latter of enabling roll tampering instead of safeguarding ballots.
Gupta said that the Congress will take the issue to the streets while informing of the protest rally by the INDIA bloc scheduled on November 1 in New Delhi.
