Bihar BJP Leader Defends Election Commission's Right to File FIR

Bihar BJP Vice‑President Hari Bhushan Thakur defended the Election Commission’s authority to lodge an FIR against alleged electoral malpractices. He dismissed the Congress’ allegations as politically motivated, noting that the draft FIR contains names of voters who are deceased, have permanently migrated, or are duplicate entries.

Thakur highlighted that the FIR preparation is a collaborative effort involving about 3.5 million staff members, including 900,000 government Block Level Officers (BLOs) and the rest from party‑appointed Block Level Agents (BLAs). The draft is circulated to all parties’ district heads, who are allotted a month to submit objections. He argued that Congress is leveraging the process to create confusion rather than seeking corrective action.

Referencing a letter signed by over a hundred former IAS and IFS officers, Thakur reminded that booth‑capturing was a widespread problem before being criminalised in 1989. He contended that the current controversy is an attempt to politicise a constitutional function of the Election Commission.