Election Commission of India on Thursday stated 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. However, 70,895 electors have filed individual claims till now and 3,449 have been disposed of after seven days of submission.
Releasing its daily bulletin, the poll body said that from August 1 to August 21, over 1,60,813 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) 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.
BLAs appointed by Political parties can collect Claims (Form 6) from the public & Objections (Form 7) from the public & file objections himself/herself along with the prescribed declaration. As per the bulletin, the Bharatiya Janata Party has the most BLAs (53,338), followed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (47,506) and the Janata Dal United (36,550).
The poll body said over 70,895 electors have submitted their claims or objections within the same period, with over 3,449 objections having been disposed of after seven days.
The ECI has also received 2,28,793 Form 6s, which pertain to the registration of new electors after they are 18 years of age.
The Opposition parties have repeatedly been criticising the Bihar SIR, calling the revision unconstitutional and alleging that voter list manipulation might happen to favour a particular political party.
Opposition Continues Protest Over Bihar SIR
The Opposition has been demanding a discussion on Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision in the Parliament during the Monsoon session. Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi embarked on the 16-day Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar.
Mr Gandhi has alleged the Election Commission of ‘Vote Theft’. However, the poll body rejected the allegations, saying that during the Lok Sabha elections, over one crore employees, more than 10 lakh booth-level agents, and over 20 lakh polling agents of candidates work for the electoral process. In such a transparent process, it would even be possible for any voter to steal votes.
Taking a veiled dig at Rahul Gandhi, the CEC further said it is mandatory to submit a “Constitution oath” as a witness if he is not a voter of the constituency in which the complaint is being made. The Election Commission also asked Rahul Gandhi to either submit an affidavit within seven days or apologise for his allegations.
Following the Supreme Court’s order, the Election Commission has published a list of the 65 lakh voters who were left out of the draft roll published on August 1.
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