EC claims there were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state before the SIR began late last month
-1754028296681_d.png "Election Commission to publish draft electoral rolls for Bihar after SIR protests")
The process has faced criticism and protests from the opposition, with concerns over potential mass deletion of voters File Pic.
Following the massive protest of a month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the Election Commission (EC) is all set to publish the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on Friday ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls, reported ANI.
This will also begin the "claims and objections" process, which will continue until September 1. During this time, voters who believe their names were wrongly deleted can contact the relevant authorities to seek a resolution.
As reported by PTI, the EC claims there were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state before the SIR began late last month.
The process has faced criticism and protests from the opposition, with concerns over potential mass deletion of voters.
In the first stage of SIR, voters received "enumeration forms" either from booth-level officers (BLOs) or booth-level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties. Voters were required to sign the forms and attach valid identity proof before submitting them. Alternatively, they could also download and submit the forms online.
The process was over by July 25 and, according to the EC, "7.23 crore voters" submitted their enumeration forms, while 35 lakh were found to have "permanently migrated or gone untraceable".
An additional 22 lakh voters have been reported as deceased, while seven lakh individuals were found to be registered in more than one electoral roll. The Election Commission also stated that 1.2 lakh voters did not submit their enumeration forms, as reported by ANI.
The massive exercise was conducted by BLOs deployed across 77,895 polling centres, with support from 1.60 lakh BLAs and other volunteers. The entire process was overseen by 243 Electors Registration Officers (EROs) and 2,976 Assistant EROs.
Critics of the exercise, who alleged it was aimed at benefiting the ruling NDA ahead of the upcoming elections, where the JD(U)-BJP alliance will contest with 20 years of incumbency, approached the Supreme Court. Earlier this week, the court emphasized that the SIR process should lead to "en masse inclusion and not en masse exclusion."
Leaders like CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, one of the petitioners in the case, had earlier raised concerns that the ruling establishment might exploit the claims and objections phase to its advantage, using "empowered" yet compliant EROs and AEROs to carry out what he termed "the real game," reported ANI.
Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, recently created a flutter by threatening to "boycott" the upcoming elections if concerns were not addressed squarely.
(Inputs from ANI)
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