New Delhi
Amid a struggle in Parliament on the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar, the Election Commission said on Thursday that no political party has submitted a single claim or objection yet regarding the draft list of voters released after the SIR process. Along with this, the Commission has said that no eligible voter will be left in the last voter list of Bihar nor any ineligible voter will be included. The Commission has appealed to all the people to submit claims and objections to improve any error in Bihar’s draft voter list.
The Election Commission said in a daily bulletin on the special intensive revision of the voter list in Bihar that till date the Election Commission has received only 5,015 claims and objections from the voters regarding the draft list. The Commission said that the number of applications received from new voters who acquire 18 years of age or above is 27,517.
Claims are settled within seven days
The commission’s bulletin states that according to the rules, claims and objections will be settled by the Electoral Registration Officer/Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (ERO/AERO) after the end of 7 days. According to SIR orders, any name from the draft list published on 1 August cannot be removed without a clear order by ERO/AERO and giving proper and appropriate opportunities.
Political struggle on SIR, atmosphere from Patna to Delhi
Special intensive revision of voter list in Bihar has given rise to political dispute. The opposition party India Block has alleged that a large number of voters’ names can be removed from this revision process. Since the beginning of the monsoon session of Parliament, the opposition parties have been demanding a discussion on Bihar SIR and are protesting in Parliament.
SC sought details of 65 lakh removed voters
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to file a reply on the new application of an NGO- Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) by 9 August. In this application, after the SIR campaign, the draft of Bihar was demanded to disclose the discharge of 65 lakh voters excluded from the voter list. The apex court has asked the commission to hand over details to those 65 lakh people by August 9 and also give a copy to the AdR’s lawyer.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared on behalf of an NGO, mentioned the case before the Supreme Court, saying that no specific information has been given about who is dead and who has migrated permanently. A bench of Justice Suryakant, Justice Ujjwal Bhuiyan and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh asked the Election Commission counsel to give details of the removed voters, the data shared with political parties, and a copy of it to the NGO.
Will be able to claim by 30 September
The Election Commission said that all necessary information has been given to political parties. The bench told Bhushan that the reason for removing the name would be mentioned later, as it is only a draft list. However, Bhushan said that some political parties have been given a list of voters removed, but they have not clarified whether the voter has died or has gone elsewhere. Explain that on 1 August, the Election Commission released the draft voter list for Bihar after the completion of the calculation phase under SIR 2025.
