The Election Commission of India released its most controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the poll-bound Bihar. According to the final voter list published by the Election Commission of India on September 30, Bihar now has 7.42 crore eligible voters, the list has shrunk by almost 6% .
Prior to the SIR announced on June 24 this year, Bihar had 7.89 crore voters. The poll body said that the number of electors in poll-bound Bihar has now come down by nearly 47 lakh.
More voters removed after SIR
In the initial draft roll published on August 1, 65 lakh voters were removed, while another 3.66 lakh were struck off during the claims and objections stage.
Of the 65 lakh voters removed, 22 lakh were marked dead, 36 lakh were shown migrated or absent, and 7 lakh were enrolled elsewhere.
Whereas out of the 3.66 lakh deletions, over 2 lakh voters were shown migrated, 60,000 dead and 80,000 duplications, according to the Indian Express.
Subsequently, 21.53 lakh names were added to the list after the SIR process. This resulted in a net decrease of 47 lakh voters.
The revised list was published following a months-long evaluation of documents submitted by prospective voters and objections filed by parties and individuals.
Lags in the SIR report
The final draft roll raises several questions. The EC didn’t provide details on many crucial aspects, like the percentage of male and female electorates that were deleted from the list.
The EC also didn’t address the primary reason it had given for conducting voter revision exercise in Bihar—the presence of “foreign illegal immigrants”.
The list is silent as to how many foreigners have been removed from the electoral roll. Neverhtless, the poll body has said that those voters who didn’t make it to the list still have a chance.
They can appeal first to the District Magistrate, and then to the Chief Electoral Officer, within ten days before the last date for filing of nominations for the upcoming election.
