Rajya Sabha passes electoral reforms bill, Oppn stages walkout

Parliament passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, on Tuesday with Rajya Sabha approving it through voice vote amid a walkout by the Opposition.

The Bill seeks to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem to weed out duplication of voters and weed out fake votes. It was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday.

The opposition parties were demanding a division of votes as they had moved a motion to send the Bill to a select committee, which was rejected by voice vote.

Members of opposition parties like Congress, TMC, Left parties, DMK and NCP staged a walkout from the House in protest.

Rajya Sabha approved the Bill after members of BJP, JD(U), YSRCP, AIADMK, BJD and TMC-M supported it, saying it will help in eradicating duplicate and fake votes from the electoral rolls.

Replying to the debate, the Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said: “It will delete the multiple votes of single person and cleanse the system of the fake voters. The government has deliberated the matter in detail with the Election Commission.”

Rijiju said that the Bill will bring important electoral reforms in the country. “We wanted the entire House to participate in the debate but they have been protesting and sloganeering.”

He said the Bill, aimed at purifying the electoral process in the country, was brought after wide consultations with the Election Commission and the state governments.

It is based on the recommendation of the Standing Committee Report of the Department of Personnel and Training, Law and Justice, consisting of members of all political parties. The protesting members have either not gone through the draft Bill or are deliberately showing ignorance of the new provisions.

Intervention by BJP Member Sushil Modi who said that Deepender Hooda and Sukhendu Shekar Ray were present in the committee but did not object it which was challanged by Ray.

When the motion to send the Bill to select committee by John Britas and others were negated, he insisted on division, Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, who was on the chair, said that those seeking division should go to the Chair.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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