Chandigarh, Dec. 22 -- A motion to discuss elections and the voter roll revision exercise triggered stormy scenes in the Haryana Assembly, with the Congress MLAs walking out, saying the issue was beyond the purview of this House.

Proceedings of the House were marred by sloganeering, multiple walkouts, allegations of "objectionable comments, a brief adjournment due to the ruckus and later the assembly passed a resolution to "condemn the behaviour" of opposition leaders for not participating in what it said was an "important issue".

Defending the motion, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said the Opposition has been levelling allegations of "vote chori" and has been creating "a state of confusion" even though his government has been elected with a big mandate.

It has to be debated in the Assembly so that "people know the truth", Saini asserted.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that he failed to understand the objective of the motion. "Can we give direction to the Election Commission and discuss (electoral reforms) here?" the former chief minister said.

Other Congress leaders claimed that the issue was in the Union list, not the concurrent list, and so can not be debated in the House.

Saini defended the charges, saying that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has specifically named Haryana while making allegations of vote theft. Such serious allegations, he said, deserve a "responsible and fact-based discussion" within the House.

Even in this House, they have raised "vote chori" allegations, the CM said, pointing to Congress MLAs.

Gandhi has cited the electoral list data from Haryana to allege that 25 lakh entries were "fake" and the poll victory in the state was "stolen" from the Congress last year.

Hooda told the CM that Gandhi has not raised any question on the ruling party, but on the Election Commission.

The issue has been the cause of uproar even during the Monsoon and Winter sessions of Parliament, with the opposition demanding a debate on the SIR issue.

It was not discussed in the Monsoon session, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju saying that the SIR is part of the Election Commission's mandate and the poll panel had conducted such exercises before. In the Winter session, however, the issue of "electoral reforms" was debated on December 9-10 for approximately 13 hours with the participation of 63 MPs.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.