EC must take full responsibility for BLO deaths during SIR: M A Baby
New Delhi.(PTI): CPI(M) General Secretary M A Baby on Wednesday called the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls a "criminal exercise" and demanded that the Election Commission immediately halt it and "take full responsibility of the lives lost" in the process.
In an X post, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader said the exercise is not only risking mass voter disenfranchisement but is also endangering the lives of booth-level officers (BLO).
"Distressing reports are emerging from across the country about the deaths of BLOs tasked with carrying out the Special Intensive Revision in an unreasonably short timeframe," Baby said.
"The Election Commission's haste in proceeding with this exercise at the behest of the ruling BJP, which has become all the more evident with UP Govt's FIRs against BLOs, despite a pending petition before the Supreme Court, not only risks mass voter disenfranchisement but is now endangering precious lives too," he said.
Baby demanded that the poll panel should ensure compensation for bereaved families.
"The ECI must immediately halt this criminal SIR exercise, take full responsibility for the lives lost, and ensure compensation for the bereaved families. Nothing less is acceptable," the post read.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
