With 64 lakh voters weeded out, SIR in Bihar sets an example of 'purifying' electoral roll

Patna: Bihar has set a new precedence. The state which had 7.89 crore voters will now have around 7.23 crore voters for the ensuing Assembly polls, slated to be held in October and November.

The Election Commission insists it has purified the electoral roll by weeding out large number of bogus voters - around 64 lakh - through the massive month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise carried out from June 24 to July 25.

“The names of around 64 lakh voters, out of 7.89 crore voters listed in Bihar, will be deleted as these voters fall under four categories: dead, permanently migrated, registered in multiple locations and untraceable,” said an EC source.

Giving further break-up of these four categories, the source added: “Around 22 lakh voters were declared as deceased, 35 lakh had either permanently migrated or could not be traced and around 7 lakh were registered in multiple locations.

The SIR exercise was a much-needed reform to clean the Augean Stables.”

Nationwide SIR

The SIR exercise, EC sources say, will be carried out throughout the country beginning with Bihar where the poll panel will publish a draft voters’ list on August 1. This revised list, which will be a digitised one, will have the names of 7.23 crore electorate, instead of the existing 7,89,69,844 voters. All the eligible voters will have one month’s time from August 1 to September 1 to get any anomaly rectified.

Opposition protest

Notwithstanding the EC’s massive drive to purify the electoral roll, the Opposition and the civil society have smelt a rat.

While the ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) has submitted before the apex court that enumeration forms (EFs) were being mass uploaded by the booth level officers (BLOs) without the consent of voters, the Leader of the Opposition in Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, has shot off a letter to 35 different political parties, including few NDA allies like TDP chief Chandrabau Naidu, LJP president Chirag Paswan and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel.

“The farce and tragedy of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) going on in Bihar has shaken the very foundation of democracy through large-scale disenfranchisement. It is a clear indication of how the independent institution of the Election Commission is adamant on eroding public trust in the integrity of our electoral process,” said Tejashwi, who has also wondered why Aadhaar was not included as one of the documents to be submitted along with the enumeration forms.

The Supreme Court will hear the SIR matter afresh on Monday.