With a day left for the deadline for submitting the enumeration forms as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, the Election Commission of India has said 61.1 lakh voters are set to be removed from Bihar’s electoral rolls.
The Election Commission in a statement said that 99 per cent of the electors out of 7,89,69,844 voters have already been covered under the SIR exercise.
It said, “BLOs/BLAs have reported names of 21.6 lakh deceased electors, while 31.5 lakh electors have permanently migrated and 7 lakh voters have been found registered at more than one place.”
“According to local BLOs or BLAs, one lakh electors are untraceable,” it said.
The total of the deceased, permanently migrated, registered at more than one place and untraceable amounts to 61.1 lakh voters in Bihar, as per the poll panel.
The Commission also said that despite door-to-door visits by local BLOs or BLAs, forms of fewer than 7 lakh electors have still not been received.
It further said that enumeration forms of 7.21 crore electors or 91.32 per cent have been received and digitised, and names of all these electors will be included in the Draft Electoral Roll.
“The remaining forms are also being digitised along with BLO/BLA reports to facilitate their verification during the claims and objections period,” it said.
The EC maintained that booth-level lists of those electors who have not filled their forms, of deceased electors, and electors who have permanently migrated have already been shared by BLOs or EROs or DEOs or CEOs with all political parties on July 20, so that they can point out any errors.
It also stated that as per the SIR Order, any elector or any political party can file a claim in case of any missing names or raise an objection in case of any wrong inclusion till September 1, 2025.
The Commission stated that as per the SIR Order, the Draft Electoral Roll will be published on August 1, 2025, and printed as well as digital copies will be provided to all 12 political parties.
“The draft roll will also be available on the website. The Election Commission once again reiterates that, as per the SIR order, any elector or political party can file a claim in case of missing names or raise an objection in case of wrong inclusion till September 1, 2025,” it said.
If the figure stands in the final voter rolls, on average, about 25,000 names could be removed in every assembly constituency across Bihar’s 243 Assembly seats, which will have a major impact on results in the elections scheduled later this year.
In the 2020 assembly elections, the margin of victory was less than 1,000 votes in 11 assembly seats, while on 35 seats the margin was less than 3,000 votes, and there were 52 such assembly seats where the margin was less than 5,000 votes.
The opposition Grand Alliance which has the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties as members has been opposing the exercise and have dubbed it as “vote bandi”.
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