Over 35 lakh names to be removed from revised Bihar voter list: EC

As the heat builds ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, the Election Commission (EC) on Monday, July 14, released an updated voter list, revealing over 35 lakh names are set to be excluded from the electoral roll as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

It also informed that over 6.60 crore out of the total 7.89 crore electors of Bihar (88.18 percent) will be included in the electoral roll.

The EC stated that nationalities from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar were found registered as voters, and their names will be removed.

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“So far 1.59 percent of electors have been found deceased, 2.2 percent permanently shifted, and 0.73 percent were found to be enrolled at more than one place. Only 11.82 percent of electors now remain to submit their filled EFs, and many of them have sought time to submit their forms with documents in the coming days,” the commission said.

The last date to submit the enumeration forms (EFs) is July 25, after which the electoral roll will be published. The final electoral roll will be published on September 30.

Opposition doubtful of EC

The exclusion of over 35 lakh names from the voters’ list has drawn sharp criticism from the Opposition parties, mainly the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

In a press conference on Sunday, Leader of Opposition in Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, expressed doubts over EC’s claims that the special intensive revision (SIR) intention was to speed up the verification process.

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“In its press note issued on Saturday, the EC claimed that more than 80 per cent of the state’s 7.90 crore voters have already been covered under SIR. This is a bewildering claim considering the fact that an estimated four crore people from Bihar live in other states,” he said.

He had earlier cautioned that even a one percent exclusion of voters per constituency could mean the removal of around 3,200 names in each segment.

He also addressed EC’s alleged silence over the Supreme Court’s suggestion that Aadhar card and ration card be included in the list of acceptable documents.

“The EC is never coming up with a proper statement or press conference explaining what it intends to do about the SC order earlier this week when it was told to consider including Aadhar card and ration card,” he said

With the new EC data, concerns are growing over the potential impact this large-scale revision may have on the electoral outcome.

(With PTI inputs)

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