Verification of burqa-clad voters must be ensured during polls: Bihar BJP Chief
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Patna: Patna: Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal called for mandatory face verification of burqa-clad women voters, triggering a political storm in the state heading for assembly polls.
The opposition, particularly the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), responded sharply to the remarks accusing the BJP of pushing the politics of ‘hatred’.
During his meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar yesterday, BJP chief Jaiswal made several suggestions including verification of burqa-clad women at polling booth saying that tallying the faces of voters with EPIC cards must be ensured.
‘Tallying of faces of voters, especially burqa-clad women, must be ensured with respective EPIC cards so that only genuine voters get to exercise their franchise,’ he was quoted as saying after the meeting.
Jaiswal’s remarks came as the Chief Election Commissioner met representatives of all political parties seeking their inputs and suggestions regarding polls.
The main opposition RJD’s MP Abhay Kushwaha, leading the RJD delegation to the Chief Election Commissioner, called the BJP leader’s comment a ‘political conspiracy’, adding ‘The Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls has just been carried out. New EPIC cards are to be issued to all voters with fresh photographs. Identification of voters is no big deal. But the BJP wants to push its own agenda’.
Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sinha backed his party colleague saying that ‘the law should be the same for all’.
‘Whether a woman is in a burqa or not, if the Election Commission imposes a rule to check the face of a woman voter, it should be the same for everyone. It is not acceptable that one can see the faces of women with ghoonghat (veil), but not the faces of women with a burqa. Women officers will check the faces of women voters. What is the problem?’ Sinha reportedly said.
K Madhavi Latha, the BJP candidate for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, last year triggered a controversy by asking burqa-clad Muslim voters to show their faces for verification.
Following which, then Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar made it clear that voters would be identified at polling booths according to election rules alongside respecting their cultural values.