Over 1.33 million fresh voters register in Bihar ahead of assembly polls
Over 300,000 notices issued to voters for dubious details. Final draft to be published on September 30, with significant objections filed by opposition parties.
With only two days remaining for filing of objections/claims in the ongoing second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar, around 1.33 million first- time voters have applied for registration, meaning the number of final electors may go higher than 72.4 million enlisted in the draft roll released last month.
Similarly, the list of excluded voters may also swell beyond 6.5 million with the Election Commission serving notices to more than 300,000 electors allegedly found filing “dubious” details or “inadequate credentials for citizenship”.
The final draft of rolls revised through SIR will be published on September 30.
As per data shared by the ECI, a total of 1.33 million applications were received under Form-6 since August 1 when the poll panel opened the forum for people to submit objections or applications. They were all filed by youths attaining 18 years of age. Another 227,000 persons have filed objections/claims directly of which 29,872 are for inclusion of names while 197,000 are for exclusion of names (names appearing in two places), the data said.
The EC officials believe that around 1.4-1.5 million new voters may be added to the draft roll after completion of the second phase. “There are indications that the number of electors in the final draft to be published on September 30 would go up from 72.4 million as the number of petitions for inclusion is likely to be around 1.4-1.5 million by the time the period of objection/claims is over. Of course, we must remember that the inclusion of names would be done after the verification process,” said an election official, who is part of the exercise, while talking to HT.
{{/usCountry}}The EC officials believe that around 1.4-1.5 million new voters may be added to the draft roll after completion of the second phase. “There are indications that the number of electors in the final draft to be published on September 30 would go up from 72.4 million as the number of petitions for inclusion is likely to be around 1.4-1.5 million by the time the period of objection/claims is over. Of course, we must remember that the inclusion of names would be done after the verification process,” said an election official, who is part of the exercise, while talking to HT.
{{/usCountry}}The deletions, according to the EC officials, will be because of two reasons. One, a number of electors filing for deletions of their names as they might have registered elsewhere due to shifting or migration, etc. Second, around 300,000 of voters have been served notices for providing documents to establish their place of birth/date of birth as per the guidelines of SIR to ascertain citizenship.
{{/usCountry}}The deletions, according to the EC officials, will be because of two reasons. One, a number of electors filing for deletions of their names as they might have registered elsewhere due to shifting or migration, etc. Second, around 300,000 of voters have been served notices for providing documents to establish their place of birth/date of birth as per the guidelines of SIR to ascertain citizenship.
{{/usCountry}}Officials in the state election department said that the maximum notices served to voters are those who have been found as ‘doubtful voters’ with a large chunk being suspected as people coming to Bihar from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.
“The maximum number of notices to suspected voters have been served by the EROs mainly in districts like Kishanganj, Saharsha, Supaul, West Champaran, Purnea, Katihar and Madhubani. These are districts where there has been an influx of illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries,” said an election officer.
All these districts, especially Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnea and Supaul have a large chunk of Muslim population.
The election official said that the notices were served to only those voters who have been ascertained as having “doubtful credentials” through field inquiry reports done by the respective district administrations.
Election officials said that apart from suspected Bangladeshis having enrolled in voters list (largely in the Seemanchal region), the notices have also been served to a large number of voters who have their origin in Nepal but have been living in India, especially in bordering districts of Supaul, Saharsa, West Champaran for many years. “There is a big number of voters who hail from Nepal but have settled in India either through marriage or other purpose but have no documents to prove their Indian citizenship. They have been pinpointed and served notices to prove their credentials,” said another election department official.
Political parties’ status of claims
Opposition political parties too have come out of their inertia and filed 128 claims till late on Saturday, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation taking lead with filing 117 objections alone.
The number of claims filed by the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties like BJP, JD(U), LJP(RV), Rashtriya Lok Morcha and HAM(Secular) is zero.
The CPI(M-L) filed maximum claims despite not having a pan-state network and a required network of Booth Level Agents (BLAs) – through whom a party can file voter claims – to take up cases of electors.
“We are helpless in many ways. The list of deleted names is huge and checking names not included especially of migrant labourers is a tough task booth wise. We do not have such a big network of BLAs and getting ground reports is not easy from rural areas. Besides, claims and objections have to be submitted in a specific format, as we were told by election officials. So, it is quite evident that the number of petitions is low,” said Pervej, a senior leader of the CPI(M-L).
Another major Opposition party in Bihar that has filed objections is Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) that has submitted 10 petitions.
The party alleged that its BLAs were filing a sufficient number of claims but only a few of them were accepted.
“The claims/objections filed by our BLAs is over 500 but only few are being accepted on the pretext that it has to be in a specific format. Besides, we feel the period of objection/claims should be extended as the names of 6.5 million deleted voters with specific reasons were made public only recently after the Supreme Court order. Checking the list of deleted names is a challenging task but we have filed a number of objections,” said Chittaranjan Gagan, state spokesperson of the RJD.
He added the RJD had filed a petition in the apex court seeking extension of the period for filing claims/objections.
The hearing on the petition is scheduled for September 1.
