Those out of Assam NRC will continue to vote till they exhaust legal remedies: EC
New Delhi, Sep 27: Days after the Union Home Ministry clarified that those left out of the National Register of Citizens in Assam will continue to enjoy all rights of a citizen till they exhaust all legal remedies, the Election Commission has decided that such people will continue to be voters if their names exist in the electoral rolls of the state.
A senior functionary of the poll panel on Friday said until those left out of the NRC are eventually declared foreigners after they exhaust all their legal remedies, they would not be disenfranchised.
A foreigner cannot be a voter in India, according to the Representation of the People Act, the functionary pointed out.
The EC functionary referred to a clarification issued by the Home Ministry earlier this month that those left out of the NRC would continue to enjoy all rights as earlier, like other citizens.
The functionary said there will be no review of their voting rights till they use all legal options available to them.
The final NRC was released on August 31 with 19,06,657 of the total 3,30,27,661 applicants excluded and 3,11,22,004 included.
The process for updating NRC was started in Assam following a Supreme Court order in 2013 and since then, the apex court has been closely monitoring the entire process.
As per electoral laws, name of a voter cannot be deleted without issuing a notice.
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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.
