EC to soon put out 2003 Bihar voters' list; 4.96 crore electors need not give documents

New Delhi: The Election Commission will soon upload the 2003 Bihar electoral roll on its website to facilitate the nearly 4.96 crore voters whose names figure on it extract the relevant portion to be attached with the enumeration form for the special intensive revision of the voters' list.

As opposition parties questioned the revision exercise, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar told PTI on Sunday that the purpose is to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out of the electoral rolls and no ineligible person is a part of it.

Several opposition parties have said that the intensive revision carries the risk of willful exclusion of voters using the state machinery.

A senior functionary asserted that anyone opposing the exercise is also opposing Article 326 and should therefore clarify their stand.

Article 326 says that all eligible citizens should be included in the electoral rolls, and those not eligible or not citizens of India cannot be part of the voters' list.

EC functionaries pointed out that during the ongoing SIR in Bihar, the poll authority advised political parties to appoint their workers as booth level agents (BLAs) in all polling stations now rather than finding faults with the electoral rolls later.

On Saturday, the commission said all recognised national and state political parties have already appointed 1,54,977 BLAs. They can still appoint more, it pointed out.

BLAs are party workers who coordinate with booth level officers (BLOs) during the preparation or revision of the voters' list.

According to the instructions issued by the poll authority to its Bihar poll machinery, the 4.96 crore voters -- 60 per cent of the total electors -- who were listed in the 2003 special intensive revision need not submit any supporting document to establish their date or place or birth except the relevant portion of the electoral roll brought out after the revision.

The other three crore -- nearly 40 per cent -- will have to provide one of the 11 listed documents to establish their place or date of birth.

Here too, the voters whose parents have been named in the 2003 voters' list, will have to only give documents about their place/date of birth. They will not have to give documents regarding the place/date of birth of their parents as their entry in the 2003 list will be considered as proof, underlined an official.

"The basic exercise is to identify each and every individual of the remaining three crore voters before their names are included in the list," a functionary explained.

Bihar, as of now, has more than 7.89 crore voters spread across 243 assembly seats. Polls in the state are due later this year.

According to EC instructions, the electoral registration officer (ERO) of each assembly constituency will be responsible for ensuring that "no eligible citizen is left out and no ineligible person is included in the electoral roll" while carrying out the revision.

The EROs will satisfy themselves regarding the eligibility of every person before entering their name in the electoral roll.

The EC said every existing elector, as on the date, will be provided available an enumeration form through a BLO. The elector can download the enumeration form from a dedicated website.

The BLO will collect a copy of the enumeration form and sign the acknowledgement of receipt on the second copy to be retained by the existing elector.

Based on the enumeration forms received, along with documents, the ERO will prepare the draft roll.

The last intensive revision in Bihar was done in 2003, with January 1, 2003, as the qualifying date.

"As the eligibility of electors enrolled in the electoral rolls after the last intensive revision was established then, the Commission has decided that such electors need not attach any additional document alongwith the enumeration form, except the extract of the roll.

"Thus, CEO/DEO/ERO shall make the electoral rolls with a qualifying date of 01.01.2003 freely available to all BLOs in hard copy, as well as online on their website for anyone to download and use as documentary evidence while submitting their enumeration form," the poll panel said.

As part of the intense revision, poll officials will carry out house-to-house verification to ensure an error-free voters' list.

The terms of the legislative assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are ending in May-June next year, and an intensive revision of the electoral rolls in these states will commence by the end of the year, officials said.

However, since assembly polls in Bihar are due later this year, the EC decided to conduct the revision in the state immediately.

Amid allegations by opposition parties that the EC has fudged voter data to help the BJP, the poll panel has taken additional steps in the intensive revision to ensure illegal migrants do not get enrolled in the voters' list.

An additional 'declaration form' has been introduced for a category of applicants seeking to become electors or shifting from outside the state. They will have to undertake that they were born in India before July 1, 1987, and provide any document establishing the date of birth and/or place of birth.

One of the options listed in the declaration form is that they were born in India between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004. They will also have to submit documents about the date and place of birth of their parents.

The EC said multiple reasons, such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants have necessitated the conduct of the exercise to ensure integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls.