Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) on Thursday served a show-cause notice to its MP Girdhari Yadav his inflammatory comments on the current special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. The notice alleged that the comments “inadvertently lent credibility to the baseless and politically motivated allegations made by the Opposition.”
The letter, which was signed by the party’s national general secretary Afaque Ahmad Khan, said that the JD(U) considered the MP’s actions to be a failure of discipline, and not in harmony with its declared stance on the issue of electoral roll revision.
“Your public utterances on such a sensitive issue, particularly during an election year, not only embarrass the party but also unintentionally give legitimacy to the unsubstantiated and politically motivated accusations levelled by the opposition,” the notice said.
The MP has been asked to respond to the notice within 15 days. If the minister fails to respond, disciplinary action could be taken against him, the notice added.
On Wednesday, while speaking to media persons outside the Parliament, Girdhari accused, “Election Commission has ‘no practical knowledge’ and has ‘forcefully imposed’ the revision on almost eight crore voters. It does not know the geography and history of Bihar. It took me 10 days to gather all the documents. My son resides in America. how will he get through all formalities in a month?”
Giridhari also made remarks on Thursday which were not according to the JD (U)’s position on the subject, explaining that those comments on SIR were made in personal capacity.
“This is my personal view regarding the SIR and not of the party to which I belong,” stated the MP.
Speaking to the media, Girdhari asserted that the Election Commission is a constitutional body and should hear out everyone’s opinions. Whatever EC is doing for conducting SIR in Bihar, is incorrect, he asserted. He further maintained that he will desist from commenting on the SIR if Nitish wanted him to.
