Union law minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday gave a presentation on the need for the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) parliamentary party meeting a day after the Lok Sabha approved the proposed legislation amid Opposition protests.
The bill, which proposes to allow Election Commission officials to seek Aadhaar details of registered voters on a voluntary basis and make the language of the Representation of the People Act gender-neutral, is scheduled to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
“He (Rijiju) explained in detail the current problems and how this bill, once passed, will address the issues. These reforms have been discussed for a long time,” said a BJP lawmaker, who attended the meeting.
While there has been stiff resistance from opposition parties to the bill, the government has maintained reforms are necessary. The government has said the linking of Aadhaar with electoral rolls will solve one of the major problems in electoral database management–multiple enrolments of the same people at different places.
An official said registrations in the electoral rolls are based on applications by people eligible to be registered as voters. “This bill has a provision whereby the new applicant may voluntarily provide an Aadhaar number along with the application for the purpose of identity. No application will be rejected on the grounds that the Aadhaar number has not been provided.”
The official said multiple registrations in electoral rolls are due to the frequent shifting of residences by electors. “Once Aadhaar linkage is achieved, the electoral roll data system will instantly alert the existence of previous registration(s) whenever a person applies for new registration. This will help in cleaning the electoral roll to a great extent and facilitate voter registration in the location at which they are ordinarily resident,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
At the parliamentary party meeting, BJP president JP Nadda separately asked MPs to plan events in their constituencies on Good Governance Day, which is celebrated on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary on December 25.
“He also asked MPs to organise events to promote sports in their constituencies. We have been celebrating December 25 as Good Governance Day for the past few years. This time also we will plan some events,” said another MP, who did not want to be named.