SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar underway in 'full swing': EC

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar is underway in “full swing” with officials collecting 1.04 crore enumeration forms from voters, even as the Opposition continued to raise concerns and a private election watchdog petitioning in Supreme Court against the exercise.

In a statement, the EC said enumeration forms of 7,38,89,333 or 93.57 per cent of 7.89 crore voters have been distributed already. Of this, 1,04,16,545 voters have returned the enumeration forms till 6 pm on Saturday.

“The SIR in Bihar is underway in full swing with the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), BLO Supervisors, all the election officials, Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by the parties, volunteers are working tirelessly at the grassroots level to ensure that no eligible elector is left out,” the EC said.

It said 77,895 BLOs are going house-to-house to help the electors fill out their enumeration forms and collect them. In a large number of cases, the BLOs are taking live pictures of voters and uploading them, it said.

Additionally, 20,603 BLOs are also being appointed. Besides, 239 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), 963 Assistant EROs, 38 District Electoral Officers and the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar are at the ground level to facilitate the voters to submit their forms, the EC said adding that around 1,54,977 BLAs are also providing active support.

While the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has approached the top court against SIR, the CPI(ML)L shot off a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar about the “lack of uniformity” causing “chaos among the people leading to great anxiety”.

Party leader N Sai Balaji said that there were reports from various districts, including Bhojpur and Gopalganj, where people are being told to submit enumeration forms without any enabling documents.

“The concern that was being raised by the 10 opposition parties of I.N.D.I.A. bloc during the meeting at your office about the glaring inconsistencies and the confusion and pandemonium is being corroborated by ground reports with ongoing Bihar SIR exercise,” Balaji, who attended the meeting along with CPI(ML)L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said in the letter.

He also said forms for appointment of BLAs are being provided in English and this “exclusionary exercise is making it difficult for party workers to even fill the forms".

While Congress demanded a two-day Assembly session in Bihar to discuss SIR and law and order situation, Trinamool Congress urged the Supreme Court to "urgently" review the "politically motivated" SIR.

Trinamool Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O'Brien describing the Election Commission as “extremely compromised (EC)”, said on X that the party strongly opposes the SIR exercise in Bihar.

“As (West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool head) Mamata Banerjee has rightly pointed out, this NRC-like move threatens the integrity of our electoral process and risks disenfranchising millions,” it said. It reiterated its demand for treating 2024 as the base year for SIR and not 2003.

A five-member Trinamool delegation on July 1 had demanded that 2024 should be used as the base year for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal where Assembly elections are due next year. In the ongoing Bihar SIR, the EC has taken the 2003 Bihar rolls, prepared after an intensive revision as the base year.

Trinamool had earlier equated the SIR in Bihar and later in other states, including West Bengal, to the issuance of "ancestor pass" (Ahnenpass) in Nazi Germany, while alleging that the exercise "by the BJP through Election Commission" is aimed at snatching citizen's right to vote.