Economic issues, local pain points and the diligence of booth-level officers (BLOs) have eclipsed the Opposition’s use of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as a campaign plank in Bihar.
The names of 68.66 lakh voters were deleted from Bihar’s pre-SIR electorate of 7.89 crore. Most of these deleted voters were those who were found to be dead or having shifted. However, 3.66 lakh electors were found “ineligible” — that is, those who could not produce specified documents to prove, among other things, their nationality. After fresh registration, an electorate of 7.42 crore was eligible to vote in the Assembly polls.
Ramji Sah’s brother Mangan and Vikas Jaiswal’s wife Appi Devi are among those deleted from the rolls. Sah hawks plastic items at a railway crossing in Purnea’s Joragunti. Jaiswal works for the city’s municipal corporation.
“She voted in the Lok Sabha elections (last year), but can’t vote now. Even though I work for a government body, I could not get her name reinstated. Officials assured me that she would be added later. The truth is that none of us understands how they add or delete voters. She has all the documents — Aadhaar, bank passbook and so on,” Jaiswal said.
Sah is annoyed too, but not too much.
“Names are always deleted and added. I don’t blame the government for that. The government must, however, answer as to how they will bring jobs to Bihar,” he said.
Pointing to a waste bin in his inventory, he explained: “It costs ₹400. Earlier, customers would be happy to buy it at that price or at most at a discount of ₹50. Now, no one wants to buy it for more than ₹250. That is lower than the wholesale price. The market went down after Covid but I feel it’s worse now as all the youth have left to work outside Bihar. There is no money in the market. We are happy with welfare schemes, but we can’t survive if there is no business.”
One’s identity as a citizen, and entitlements thereof, are linked to one’s place on the electoral list.
“I visited each house 10 times,” said Anjum Alam, a BLO and schoolteacher in Khadi Dubri village of the Thakurganj constituency in Kishanganj district.
The village is 7km from the Nepal border. BLOs were asked to visit each home thrice, but Alam went the extra mile.
“The block development officer (who doubles as the assistant electoral registration officer) praised me. I didn’t want to be a BLO, thinking that it is a hassle. But I decided to undertake multiple visits to all 205 homes because any mistake I make will have big repercussions for people in a border area.”
Locals praise Alam, known as Anjum Master to his students and their parents, for going out of the way to help voters irrespective of their faith — in an area where most Hindus and Muslims don’t see eye to eye during polls.
“But four families are sad. Their daughters-in-law’s names were deleted. Three of them are (Hindus) from Nepal, one is a Shershabadia (Muslim) from Bengal who could not get her documents on time. All government schemes are linked to women, so deletion for them means that the family will not get government benefits any more,” Alam said.
Aggrieved voter Jitendra Yadav (left) at Bhimnagar in Supaul on Monday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and politicians in both countries have often hailed India and Nepal’s “roti-beti ka rishta” — economic and family ties. Marriages across the border are common as both countries have a free movement regime. Brides who go to marital homes across the border are considered nationals of that country, and most locals this paper spoke to are unaware of the process of applying for Indian citizenship.
In Dighalbank, right beside the border crossing into Nepal, senior citizen Ratneshwar Mishra said: “The eye hospital and other medical facilities are good in Jhapa (on the Nepal side). Here the primary health centre offers only first aid. But elections here are not on development issues, but religion. Hindus will vote for the JDU and Muslims for the RJD. During elections we may not talk to each other, but if you were here during Eid you would have seen how Hindus participate in and enjoy the festivities.”
To the west along the Nepal border, four BLOs had turned up at potter Chander Pandit’s house in Bhimnagar on the banks of the Kosi in the Chhatapur constituency of Supaul district.
“They said, ‘Chander, you don’t realise how serious this is. Your and your brother’s names can’t be found in the 2003 rolls. Turn your house upside down and find some documents or your children will curse you when they grow up’,” Pandit told this paper.
“Luckily my brother found our late father’s voter card. The BLO finally found us on the 2003 list of a different polling station and we were all added to the voter list,” he explained.
Jitendra Yadav, who was laying bricks in Pandit’s home, wasn’t so lucky.
A resident of Saraigarh Bhaptiyahi in the neighbouring Nirmali constituency, Yadav made it to the voter list but his wife Geeta, brother Ram Sundar and sister-in-law Pooja were removed.
“The BLO said we are Nepalis. I got so angry but couldn’t say anything. We are Indians. I complained to panchayat officials but nothing happened. Our parents’ names are on the list. The BLO later said that it’s been sorted out and they would add the three names next time because they are busy right now.”
In the neighbouring village of Raniganj, Sakaldev Yadav and his friends from a clutch of OBC and Dalit communities showed this paper a vast expanse of submerged paddy fields.
“They did not do the embankment and dredging work, so the Kosi flooded our fields and destroyed the entire crop this monsoon. We have not got compensation or the insurance payout as the MLA’s (BJP’s Niraj Singh) henchmen in our village are inefficient. But if you are close to the MLA, you will get what is due to you,” he said.
“The submergence has only happened because corrupt politicians get contracts for embankment and canal maintenance work. We saw them desilting the canal, taking photos as proof of work, and dumping the silt further upstream so the canal (to prevent the Kosi from breaching the embankment) gets choked again and they get more work contracts,” Yadav said.
He added: “We all voted for Modi last year, and will do so next time also as he has increased India’s standing in the world. But in Bihar, we will make Tejashwi Yadav the chief minister. Otherwise, we will go broke losing crops, not getting compensation and spending money on bribes.
“There was no vote chori (theft) in our village because the BLO is good. Everyone has also contributed money to campaign for the RJD’s Vipin Singh.”