Opposition walks out of RS over debate on duplicate voters

Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, on Monday walked out of the Rajya Sabha after their demand for a discussion on the Election Commission's alleged lapses in issuing multiple duplicate voter ID cards and delimitation was disallowed.

Opposition MPs from the Trinamool Congress, Congress and Left parties gave notices under rule 267 that calls for setting aside business of the day to take up discussion on the issue being raised through them.

But Deputy Chairman Harivansh said they could not be accepted as they were not in conformity with the rulings of the chair on such notices.

While TMC and Congress MPs sought to raise the duplicate voter ID card issue, Tamil parties wanted to discuss the impact of the ensuing delimitation exercise on southern states.

Opposition MPs raised slogans and pressed for a discussion.

However, they staged a walkout after Harivansh asserted that their notices have not been accepted and nothing that they said was going on record.

As many as 10 MPs gave notices under rule 267.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Mausam B Noo, Sushmita Dev (TMC) and Pramod Tiwari (Congress) have demanded a discussion over the alleged lapse of Election Commission in issuance of multiple duplicate Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card across the states, Harivansh said.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's P Wilson and V Sivadasan of the Communist Party of India-Marxist demanded one on concerns regarding the upcoming delimitation exercise to southern states.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Samik Bhattacharya wanted to discuss increased instances of atrocities against SCs, STs and OBCs in West Bengal.

Communist Party of India's P Santhosh Kumar sought to raise the issue of the impact of a deal by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio with Elon Musk's Starlink for providing satellite broadband internet in India.

While Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party demanded a discussion on the increase in crimes and deteriorating law and order situation in Delhi, Haris Beeran of the Indian Union Muslim League wanted one on the issue of increased instances of drug addiction amongst youth and students in Kerala.