EC trying to disenfranchise those unlikely to vote for BJP in Bihar: Parakala Prabhakar

Economist Parakala Prabhakar spoke to The Federal on the integrity of India’s electoral process. With nearly 65 lakh names struck off Bihar’s draft rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and amid allegations that the 2024 Lok Sabha results were manipulated, he shares his thoughts on why these developments raise fundamental questions about democracy in India.

The Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has seen nearly 65 lakh names excluded from the draft rolls. Do you see this as a routine electoral exercise or as an example of ‘vote chori’ that undermines electoral integrity?

What the Election Commission has done in Bihar in the name of SIR is nothing but taking out all those people—disenfranchising those who are likely to vote against the ruling party, the BJP. It is very clear.

The way the Election Commission resisted in the Supreme Court, even refusing to give out the names of the 65 lakh people who were deleted, shows its intent. Finally, the Supreme Court had to force them to release the names.

So this is a very clear case of the Election Commission trying to help the BJP by weeding out voters who are not likely to support them.

The Voice of TN themed this event as “stolen republic.” Is it suggesting that the electoral outcome itself is being manipulated, or that governance after elections fails to reflect the people’s will?

Many studies have been done, especially the one by the Vote for Democracy group, which came out with a very tight and well-researched finding that 79 seats changed hands because of a 5 crore vote hike in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A lot of evidence has been provided. The Election Commission took a very long time to announce the final polling figures. The second-phase polling figures were not fully released. The preliminary voting numbers were never made public. The final figures for the seventh phase of polling were only released after the election results were declared.

All of this raises serious doubts about the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Therefore, if somebody says the mandate was stolen and does not reflect the people’s will, then what is the difference? The Election Commission of India will have to respond to the points raised by the Vote for Democracy report.

The content above has been transcribed from video using a fine-tuned AI model. To ensure accuracy, quality, and editorial integrity, we employ a Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) process. While AI assists in creating the initial draft, our experienced editorial team carefully reviews, edits, and refines the content before publication. At The Federal, we combine the efficiency of AI with the expertise of human editors to deliver reliable and insightful journalism.