Bihar SIR Updates: ECI Says No Claim Received By Any Political Parties Even On Aug 11, Opposition Writes To Poll Body For Appointment

Election Commission of India on Monday said that no objections or claims have been received from any political parties regarding the revised draft electoral rolls since August 1, when it was published.

Releasing its daily bulletin, the poll body said that from August 1 to August 11, over 1,60,813 Booth Level Agents across national and state parties have not filed any objections or claims to the draft roll prepared after the enumeration forms were collected as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

10,570 Electors Submitted Claims Regarding SIR

The poll body said over 10,570 individual electors have submitted their claims and objections within the same period, with over 127 objections being disposed of after seven days.

The ECI has also received 54,432 Form 6, which pertains to the registration of new electors after they are 18 years of age.

The Bihar SIR has been repeatedly criticised by the Opposition parties, calling the revision unconstitutional and alleging that voter list manipulation might happen to favour a particular political party. The Opposition on Monday took out a protest march against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar. 

During the protest march, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mahua Moitra, Derek O’Brien and other Opposition leaders were detained.

Notably, the ECI has granted an appointment for an interaction with Congress, after the party levied serious allegations of fraud in elections, and the ECI “colluding” with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to “destroy the electoral system in India”.

Opposition Writes Letter To ECI For Appointment

The appointment is granted in response to Jairam Ramesh’s request on “behalf of certain political parties”. The Election Commission has requested to submit the names of up to 30 people along with their vehicle numbers for the interaction due to the limited space.

The agenda of the meeting is not mentioned in the letter. However, the Opposition has been constantly raising questions over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, accusing the poll body of “vote theft”. 

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