The Election Commission (EC) on Monday came out with the names of 65 lakh people who were removed from the draft electoral rolls published as part of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, officials said.
The development came in the backdrop of the Supreme Court's direction that details of the deleted names be made public by August 19 and a compliance report be filed by August 22.
The EC is publishing the names of 'ASD' (Absentee, Shifted, and Dead) voters across polling booths, and is likely to do so online as has been directed by the apex court, they said.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Bihar, ASD lists have been displayed at polling booths in Rohtas, Begusarai, Arwal and other places.
The Supreme Court, in an order on August 14, directed the Election Commission to publish an enumerated, booth-wise list of around 65 lakh electors not included in the draft electoral roll, published on August 1, during the ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar, where assembly elections are due later this year.
More than 65 lakh enumeration forms were 'not included' in the draft electoral rolls prepared as part of the first phase of SIR by the EC in Bihar, bringing down the total number of around 7.9 crore registered voters to 7.24 crore.
Patna accounted for the highest number of 3.95 lakh non-included enumeration forms, followed by Madhubani (3.52 lakh), East Champaran (3.16 lakh), Gopalganj (3.10 lakh), Samastipur (2.83 lakh), Muzaffarpur (2.82 lakh), Purnia (2.739 lakh), Saran (2.732 lakh), Sitamarhi (2.44 lakh), Katihar (1.84 lakh), Kishanganj (1.45 lakh), according to the EC.
Sheikhpura is the district where only 26,256 enumeration forms were not included in the draft roll, followed by Sheohar (28,166), Arwal (30,180), Munger (74,916) and Khagaria (79,551).
The EC claimed that '22,34,501' people, registered in the electoral roll, were found to be dead during the exercise. Another 36.28 lakh have 'permanently shifted' out of the state or were 'not found' at their stated addresses, and another 7.01 lakh have been found enrolled at 'more than one place'.
On Sunday, Election Commission rebuked Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his “vote chori” (vote theft) allegation and accused political parties of targeting voters while placing the blame on the Election Commission.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar also asked Rahul Gandhi to submit an affidavit within seven days with proof or render a public apology for his allegations against the Election Commission.
Gyanesh Kumar admitted that there could be errors in voter lists and knowingly or unknowingly some people ended up having multiple voter cards due to migration and other issues, he said, and the SIR would rectify it.
Kumar said there was a difference between one name appearing in the voting list many times and the person actually voting more than once.
“Names can be wrong in electoral Lists, but this is not the same as wrong voting. One person can vote only once. If you mix the two and say that votes are being stolen, then it is wrong”.