Nearly all Bihar voters covered under SIR, says EC

The Election Commission has stated that 99.8 percent of Bihar’s electors have been covered under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls so far, a near-complete tapestry of voter inclusion that underscores the Commission’s intricate efforts to ensure electoral accuracy.

“Forms of 7.23 crore electors have been received and digitised, and the names of all these electors will be included in the Draft Electoral Roll. The digitisation of forms, along with BLO reports for the remaining electors, will also be completed by August 1,” the Commission said in a press note.

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The labyrinth of electoral verification orchestrates a captivating coordination between the Commission and political parties. Lists of electors who have not filled the enumeration forms, are deceased, or have permanently migrated were already shared on July 20 with all 12 participating political parties, which have collectively nominated 1,60,813 booth-level agents (BLAs). This collaborative mosaic is designed to identify and rectify any errors before the Draft Electoral Roll is published on August 1.

Among the parties that received these lists are the Congress, which has nominated 17,549 BLAs, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal with 47,506 BLAs. Other parties involved include the Bahujan Samaj Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (Liberation), Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), National People’s Party, and the Aam Aadmi Party.

Delving into the kaleidoscopic details, the EC shared figures of BLAs from major parties: BJP – 53,338, JD(U) – 36,550, RLSP – 270, RLJP – 1,913, and LJP (Ram Vilas) – 1,210.

Since June 24, BLOs and BLAs have reported an intricate web of findings: aound 22 lakh deceased electors, about 7 lakh electors registered in multiple locations, approximately 35 lakh electors either permanently migrated or untraceable, and enumeration forms of nearly 1.2 lakh electors are still awaited.

This verdant exercise in democratic maintenance continues. As per the SIR directive, from August 1 to September 1, any elector or political party may fill the prescribed forms and submit claims for inclusion of eligible electors who may have been left out. They may also file objections for the removal of ineligible names from the rolls.