More than 65 lakh names are expected to be removed from the draft electoral rolls of poll-bound Bihar, where a month-long special intensive revision (SIR) of the rolls ended on Friday.
“Forms of 7.23 crore electors have been received and digitised; the names of all these electors will be included in the Draft Electoral Roll,” the Election Commission of India (ECI) said in a statement.
“The digitisation of forms, along with BLO (booth-level officer) reports, of the remaining electors will also be completed by August 1, 2025.”
The poll panel added that BLOs and BLAs (booth-level agents) had reported that around 22 lakh voters had died, 7 lakh voters were registered in more than one location, and 35 lakh voters had migrated permanently or could not be traced.
The enumeration forms of about 1.2 lakh voters were yet to be received, the statement added. Before the revision, Bihar had close to 7.9 crore voters on its rolls.
BLOs are government employees drafted by the poll panel, while BLAs are representatives of recognised political parties.
Opposition parties protested against the process outside Parliament on Friday by tearing sheets with “SIR” written on them and throwing them into a bin.
These parties fear the SIR will disenfranchise voters, especially migrant workers, residents of flood-prone areas and people with little education or resources.
The poll panel had earlier clarified that only those not on the 2003 rolls (when the last intensive revision was held in Bihar) — that is, 2.9 crore voters — needed to provide documentary proof.
It also clarified that even those not on the 2003 rolls could use it as parental proof — if the parents were on it — to establish their own citizenship.
Voters have the option of submitting the 2003 rolls or any of 11 other stipulated documents — not including the widely used Aadhaar cards, ration cards and electors photo identity cards (EPICs) — as proof of their citizenship.
Those born after 1987 have to submit this proof for either or both their parents, depending on the age of the voter — a first in the rolls revision procedure.
The poll panel is yet to clarify the process of verifying the documents of voters estranged from their parents, those of unknown parentage, service voters and overseas voters.
On July 6, Bihar’s chief electoral officer had published an advertisement saying documents could be submitted even after July 25.
Friday’s poll panel statement said: “…From August 1 to September 1, any elector or political party may fill the prescribed forms and submit claims to the Electoral Registration Officer for any eligible elector who is left out or file objections for removal of any ineligible elector.”
Controversy
The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have hinted at a possible boycott of the Bihar polls, expected in October-November, citing reports of large-scale irregularities in the enumeration process.
“It is deeply unfortunate that a constitutional institution like the Election Commission is supporting the BJP-RSS in this conspiracy of ‘vote suppression’,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
“The entire country has seen how, in Bihar, the Election Commission’s BLOs are making their own staff fill out forms to strip the deprived sections of society of their voting rights. Now, the Election Commission will carry out this same task across the entire country.”
BJP ally Telugu Desam Party has opposed the citizenship verification aspect of the SIR, and Janata Dal United MP Girdhari Yadav is facing action from his party for criticising the drive.
Congress Bihar-in-charge Krishna Allavaru said on Thursday: “In some places, BJP presidents are filling the forms, or forms are being filled without even asking the voter. Wherever people are being enumerated, no one is being given a receipt. The biggest weakness of this process is the discretion of the electoral registration officer to include or exclude anyone from the electoral rolls.”
It had been widely reported that BLOs were not accepting documents. Some voters claimed they had to bribe the BLOs to take their forms.
The Supreme Court has received several petitions against the SIR and has nudged the poll panel to accept Aadhaar, ration and voter I-cards.
The Election Commission has rejected these documents in a counter-affidavit saying they either fail to prove citizenship or are compromised or redundant in the context of an intensive revision that prepares the rolls afresh.
Transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj posted on X: “ECI affidavit states that the decision to carry out nation-wide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll is based on an independent appraisal. What is this ‘independent appraisal’? Why is it not available in the public domain?”
The poll panel’s counter-affidavit clarifies that those whose names are deleted will not lose their citizenship.
However, section 5.b. of the commission’s SIR guidelines make it incumbent on the electoral registration officers to “refer cases of suspected foreign nationals to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955”.