Today, Leader of Opposition in the Lower House, Rahul Gandhi expressed his views on the debate on electoral reforms going on in the Lok Sabha. Apart from T-shirt, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was seen wearing kurta-pajama. In the speech, Rahul Gandhi has asked three questions to the ruling party in the House on electoral reforms. He also mentioned Khadi, Mahatma Gandhi, Godse and RSS. During this period, uproar was also seen in the house.

Which three questions did Rahul ask in the House?
The three questions asked by Rahul Gandhi in the House. in them first question He asked about the Election Commissioner. He asked why the CJI has been excluded from the selection of the Election Commissioner?

second question He asked that in December 2023, the government changed the law, under which immunity was given to the election commissioners. Why were the laws regarding CCTV changed?

third question He asked why such a law was made under which the Election Commission destroys the footage after 45 days? He also asked how a Brazilian model has appeared in the voter list of Haryana 22 times?

‘Our country is like a cloth’
During this period, Rahul Gandhi has compared the country to a fabric. He said that our country is also like a cloth. It is a country of 1.4 billion people. If votes are not saved, then the assemblies of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will also not be saved.

Slogans of vote theft raised during speech
When Rahul Gandhi was giving a speech, there was uproar in the House. During this, slogans of vote theft were raised. While speaking on the issue of electoral reforms, Rahul Gandhi was also mentioning other topics including RSS, when BJP MPs opposed it. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that we are sitting to listen. But the opposition leader is speaking on some other topic. During this time he also asked Rahul Gandhi to speak on the subject.

Election reforms are being discussed in the winter session of Parliament on Tuesday (9 December). In which the opposition parties are giving their displeasure and arguments regarding the current SIR process. Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has also put forward three demands from her party amid the election reform discussion. In this, he demanded to extend the time limit of SIR process in UP, among the leaders with criminal image, the leader should be held responsible instead of the party and to hold elections twice through ballot paper instead of EVM.

BSP supremo Mayawati rejected the argument of the Election Commission which said that ballot paper would take more time. Mayawati made a post this afternoon on her social media account X regarding these three demands.

‘Sir The deadline should be extended immediately.

BSP supremo Mayawati said that BSP is not against the system which is running in the entire country regarding SIR. But BSP says that in this regard, whatever process is to be done to fill the names in the voter list, the time limit set for it is very short, due to which there is a lot of pressure on the BLOs and many BLOs have even lost their lives due to the pressure of work. Where there are crores of voters, BLOs should get proper time and especially in a state where there are no elections anytime soon.

The former CM said, “There are more than 15.40 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh and if an attempt is made to complete the SIR work there in a hurry, then the result will be that many legitimate voters, especially those who are poor and have gone out for work, then their names will be left out of the voter list and they will be deprived of the constitutional right to vote given to such persons by Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.” Which would be completely unfair. Therefore, instead of rushing to complete the SIR process, appropriate time should be given, that is, the present time limit should be extended.

Stop putting the entire burden of criminal candidates on the party

He said, “Regarding his second demand, he wrote that instructions have been issued by the Election Commission as per the directions of the Supreme Court. Such people, who have any criminal history, will have to give complete details of their criminal history in their affidavit and along with this they will also have to publish the complete details in the local newspapers. And it will also be the responsibility of the political party from which they are contesting the elections to publish this information in the national newspapers as well.”

Mayawati said, “In this regard, BSP says that it has often been found that among the people who are given tickets/symbols to contest elections, some people do not disclose their criminal history to the party and in respect of some people, the party comes to know about it only at the time of scrutiny, due to which the responsibility falls on the party and anyway, the responsibility of publishing the criminal history of such candidates in the national newspapers lies with the party. It has been inserted above.”

The former Chief Minister said, “Whereas in this regard, our party’s suggestion is that the responsibility of completing all the formalities regarding candidates with criminal background should be put on them and not on the party. And if in future it is known that a candidate has hidden his criminal history, then every kind of legal action and responsibility related to it should also fall on him and not on the party.”

‘EVM But don’t trust’

On behalf of the BSP, Mayawati once again raised the issue of EVM prominently, saying, “In order to remove the complaints of frequent irregularities in EVMs which are expressed during and after the elections and to create full confidence of everyone in the election process, now instead of voting through EVMs, the process of voting through ballot papers should be implemented again and if for some reason this cannot be done now, then at least in the VVPAT box.” All the slips that fall during voting should be counted and matched with the EVM votes in all the booths.

Mayawati further said, “The reason given by the Election Commission for not doing this is that it will take a lot of time, whereas their argument is not justified at all. Because if only a few more hours are spent in counting, then it should not make any difference, whereas the election process of casting votes lasts for months. And this is also necessary because this will increase the confidence of the general public of the country in the election process and will also put a complete stop to many such doubts that arise, which is in the interest of the country. Will happen.”

However, amidst the election reform discussion, these three demands by BSP have worked as a lifeline for the opposition in putting pressure on the Election Commission and the government.