Bihar Assembly polls: Election Commission to publish draft electoral rolls prepared under SIR on Friday

Patna: Amid fears that voters in many parts of Bihar could suffer "en masse exclusion" ahead of assembly polls, the Election Commission will on Friday publish the draft electoral rolls prepared as part of a special intensive revision (SIR).

This would also kick off the process of "claims and objections", which would continue till September 1, and during the period, voters with complaints of wrongful deletion of names can approach the authorities concerned seeking a remedy.

The EC claims that there were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state, until SIR was ordered late last month, triggering angry protests from the Opposition and some other organisations.

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.

In the first stage of SIR, voters were provided with "enumeration forms", either by booth-level officers (BLO) or booth-level agents (BLA) nominated by political parties, which they were to return after putting their signatures and appending documents acceptable as proof of identity.

People also had the option of downloading and submitting these enumeration 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".

Another 22 lakh have been reported to be deceased, while seven lakh people were registered as voters in more than one electoral roll.

The EC also claimed that enumeration forms were not submitted by 1.2 lakh voters.

The mammoth exercise was carried out by BLOs deputed across 77,895 polling centres, assisted by 1.60 lakh BLAs and other volunteers, under the supervision of 243 EROs (Electors Registration Officers) and 2,976 Assistant EROs.

Critics of the exercise, who felt it was being undertaken to "help" the ruling NDA in the upcoming polls, which the JD(U)-BJP combine will face with an incumbency of 20 years, moved the Supreme Court, which said earlier this week that the SIR should result in "en masse inclusion and not en masse exclusion".

The apex court, which had a few weeks ago also directed the EC to include Aadhaar cards in the list of documents admissible as proof of identity, had made it clear that it would intervene if wrongful deletion of names was reported on a large scale.

Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar came out with a message addressed to "dear electors of Bihar", in which an attempt was made to allay the fears.

He said that between August 1 and September 1, "any elector of an assembly constituency or any recognised political party in Bihar" could "come forward and give claims and objections... for adding names of any missing eligible elector, removing names of any ineligible elector or correction of any entry in the draft electoral rolls".

Earlier, political leaders such as CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who is also one of the petitioners who have moved the Supreme Court, had voiced concerns that the ruling dispensation would try to play its "the real game" during the claims and objections phase, with the help of "empowered" but pliant EROs and AEROs.