Voters can apply during claims and objections period to enrol in list if July 25 deadline missed: EC

Many parties had raised several questions about the exercise, which comes just months ahead of the Bihar elections.

New Delhi: Voters, who may miss the July 25 deadline to submit documents during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, can apply to be included in the voters’ list during the claims and objections period by filling in application for new voters, the Election Commission said on Thursday.

This can be done between August 1, when the draft electoral roll is publicised, and September 1, it said in a statement on its meeting with ten I.N.D.I.A. bloc parties on Wednesday. The parties had raised several questions about the exercise, which comes just months ahead of the Bihar elections.

An EC official said the provision for this already exists in the order issued on June 24.

“The implementation of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar is running as per schedule with the active participation of all election staff and all political parties in a transparent manner. Despite apprehensions of some persons, SIR will ensure that all eligible persons will be included,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar Gyanesh Kumar said.

The EC said the CEC and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi told the parties that the SIR is being conducted in a "planned, structured and a phased manner" to facilitate the inclusion of all eligible citizens.

They said over 1.54 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by parties are ensuring that the process is happening in a transparent manner. Kumar urged parties to appoint more BLAs to make the "process fully transparent and participative".

In the first phase between June 25 to July 3, partially pre-filled Enumeration Forms were being distributed to around 7.90 crore voters in Bihar by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) through the 77,895 Booth Level Officers (BLOs). Another 20,603 BLOs are being appointed. The BLAs are also allowed to submit up to 50 certified forms per day.

In the second phase, the fully filled Enumeration Forms are to be submitted before July 25 and nearly four lakh volunteers, which include government officials and NCC cadets among others, will help voters, including the old, sick, Persons with Disabilities, poor and other vulnerable groups, to submit it.

While voters who have their names in the 2003 voters list need not provide extra documents except for excerpts of the electoral roll while others in various categories have to provide different sets of documents.

The third phase will run parallel with BLOs collecting completed forms along with the self attested documents and also will upload the data through the BLO App/ECINET on a daily basis. While collecting the forms, the BLOs will issue acknowledgement receipts to the electors.

During the fourth phase, the Draft Electoral Roll will be published on August 1. The EC told the leaders that the list will include all electors whose forms have been received by the deadline while names for which no Enumeration Form has been submitted before July 25 will not appear.

"Copies of the Draft Roll will be provided to recognized political parties free of cost and uploaded on the ECI website. Electors who miss the initial deadline can still apply during the claims and objections period using Form 6 along with a declaration form. BLAs can continue to submit up to 10 forms per day even after the Draft Roll is published," it said.

The fifth phase, from 1st August to 1st September 2025, any member of the public can file claims and objections but no deletion will be made without due inquiry and providing the concerned person a fair hearing, it added. The final roll will be published on September 30.