EC uploads list of 65 lakh voters excluded from Bihar's draft electoral rolls after Supreme Court order

New Delhi: The list of around 65 lakh names removed from draft electoral rolls of Bihar following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been posted with reasons for deletions on websites of District Magistrates "within 56 hours" of the Supreme Court's order, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said on Sunday.

He also said the list is "searchable" by Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers as mandated by the Supreme Court while insisting that the apex court has not asked them to provide "machine-readable" lists, which are different. He said the SC has in 2019 made it clear that sharing of machine readable voter lists can breach voters' privacy.

Addressing a press conference, Kumar said SIR in Bihar is aimed at removing all "shortcomings" in the existing voters list, as he defended the timing of the exercise which was held just ahead of Assembly elections.

To a question about the EC omitting Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra during the intensive revision exercise in 2004 owing to upcoming elections and why it is done in Bihar in an election year, Kumar said the Representation of People Act mandates updating electoral rolls before every election. "EC's mantra is to include all eligible voters and remove all ineligible voters from electoral rolls," he said.

So far, he said more than 10 SIRs have been held in the country to purify voter lists and the latest exercise became necessary in wake of complaints by many parties and migration of voters within the country.

Admitting that there could be errors in voters' lists and knowingly or unknowingly some people ended up having multiple voter cards due to migration and other issues, he said the SIR would rectify it.

Rebuffing concerns that people with names in voters list in two places, Kumar asked how does it matter as a voter can exercise his franchise only once.

Referring to allegations of rolls having 'zero' as house number of hundreds of voters, he said several panchayats and municipalities have not given numbers to houses and the EC had been allowing such voters to register. "To call them fake voters is wrong," he said.

To questions on allegations of irregularities in Maharashtra, he asked why no claims and objections were raised during the draft roll stage.

"When the results came, suddenly they remembered that the rolls were wrong? No objection with evidence has been filed against any voter with the Maharashtra CEO. The elections happened eight months ago. Why was no election petition filed?” he said.

“It was said why there was so much polling in the last hours. Every hour, there was 10% polling and in the last hour, there was less than 10% polling. Telling something repeatedly does not mean it will become true. The sun rises in the east and it will not rise in the west just because some one says so," he said.

He also took exception to Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi sharing photographs of voters during his press conference. "A few days back several voters' photos were made public without their permission, should the EC make public photos of voters?" he said.