Bihar SIR: Over 2.17 lakh names challenged, 36,000 seek inclusion in voters’ list

The Special Intensive Revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls closed with 2.17 lakh removal requests and 36,000 inclusion pleas. The Supreme Court directed paralegal support for voters as the EC assured 99.5% verification ahead of the final rolls on September 30

New Delhi: The month-long period to demand inclusion and deletion of people from the electoral rolls of Bihar ended on Monday, with more than 36,000 electors filing pleas to get their names added to the document.

More than 2.17 lakh demands have been made by individuals seeking the removal of names they claim have been wrongfully included in the draft electoral rolls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has filed 16 objections seeking the removal of names from the rolls. It is the only recognised national party to have sought the removal of names.

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The CPI-ML (Liberation) has demanded the removal of 103 names. It is a recognised State party of Bihar. Besides, the CPI-ML (Liberation) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have together demanded that 25 names be added to the voters’ list. The RJD too is a recognised State party.

The draft electoral rolls were published on August 1 and will remain open for “claims and objections” from individuals and political parties till September 1. People and parties have the right under the election law to challenge the inclusion of names of individuals in the draft roll whom they think are ineligible.

Similarly, people who think they are eligible but have been left out of the draft list can seek inclusion. The final electoral rolls of Bihar, which is going to the polls possibly in November, will be published on September 30.

In a related development, the Election Commission EC) told the Supreme Court on Monday that claims, objections, and corrections in the draft electoral rolls prepared during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar can be filed beyond September 1, but the same will be considered once the voters’ list is finalised.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions of the EC, which said claims and objections could be filed till the last date of filing nomination forms in each Assembly constituency.

Terming the confusion over the Bihar SIR largely a trust issue, the top court directed the state legal services authority to deploy paralegal volunteers to assist individual voters and political parties in filing claims and objections to the draft roll, which was published on August 1.

According to the EC, 99.5 per cent of the 7.24 crore voters of Bihar have so far submitted their documents for verification. The apex court has asked the poll authority to accept Aadhaar or any of the 11 listed documents from people seeking inclusion in the voters’ list. The EC has asked the court to repose faith in it for carrying out the SIR of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.