The Election Commission of India (ECI) said that no political party has contacted them to make any claims or objections about the Bihar draft voter list, which was made public on August 1. The draft roll, which is part of a “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) exercise, is available for public review until September 1. This is a very important time when people and parties can ask for the inclusion of eligible citizens or the removal of ineligible ones.
An ECI official said that as of August 9, none of the political parties or their booth-level agents (BLAs) had made any claims or objections. Even though political parties were given copies of the draft rolls for all 90,712 polling places in the state, this is still the case. On the other hand, 7,252 people have come forward to ask for changes.
There is a lot of political disagreement going on right now, and the ECI’s statement arrives in the middle of it. Opposition parties have been protesting and even stopping both Houses of Parliament since the Monsoon session started on July 21. They say that the SIR exercise is defective and will keep a lot of eligible voters from voting since it requires documents that many people, especially those in rural and low-income areas, may not have. The opposition has also said that the list is being changed to leave out some groups of voters.
The ECI has always said that it is committed to openness and has asked parties to submit their claims and objections in response to these accusations. A person from the ECI said, “The Election Commission keeps saying that no eligible voter should be left out and no ineligible voter should be added to the final electoral roll of Bihar.” If you find any mistakes in the draft roll of Bihar, please send in your claims and objections.
The ECI has also made it clear that the Electoral Registration Officer must hold a formal hearing and write an order before any name may be taken from the draft list. The final list of voters for Bihar is set to come out on September 30.