Let’s shut the door on poll-time ‘tourism’

ALLEGATIONS have surfaced that thousands of voters travelled from Delhi, Haryana and other states to get themselves registered in Bihar and cast their vote. One widely quoted example is that of a Delhi University professor who reportedly got his name deleted from Delhi’s electoral roll and got himself enrolled in Bihar to vote. If the allegations are true, this practice is unlawful.

India’s electoral law draws a bright, simple line: you may register only where you are ‘ordinarily resident’. Owning a house, nostalgia for your native village or a brief pre-poll stay do not qualify. Ordinary residence is about where you actually live your life.

Under Section 19 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, a person is entitled to be enrolled only in the constituency where he or she is ‘ordinarily resident’. Sections 17 and 18 add two non-negotiables: you cannot be registered in more than one constituency, and you cannot be registered more than once in the same constituency. Section 20 explains what ‘ordinarily resident’ means and, crucially, makes it clear that mere ownership of property does not confer residence.

Ordinary residence is a fact-based, continuous living test — where you habitually stay and intend to remain; temporary absences do not break it. Finally, Section 31 makes false statements in connection with inclusion or deletion (for example, suppressing an existing enrolment elsewhere while filing for a new one) a criminal offence, punishable with imprisonment up to one year, or fine, or both.

Though the statute doesn’t mention the ‘six-month rule’, the test is ordinary residence, assessed on facts — not an arbitrary calendar count. Second, a temporary absence for work or travel does not cost you your vote at your usual address; you don’t lose it because you were away for a few weeks, and you don’t gain it because you arrived just before polling. The Election Commission of India has always interpreted ‘normally resident’ as a six-month period. It appears in operational templates used by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) while issuing show-cause notices before deletion.

The ERO Handbook includes a model notice for cases where a person appears to have shifted: “Whereas, it has been reported to the undersigned that you have been found absent from the place of your ordinary residence as given in the electoral roll for the last more than six months. It is, therefore, presumed that you have ceased to be ordinarily resident in the constituency at the above-mentioned address.”

If voters were bussed in, enrolled on tenuous claims and plan to re-enrol in Delhi or Haryana, that is not migration; it is misrepresentation. It defeats the very purpose of constituency representation, which is to reflect the will of those who ordinarily reside in that community — making use of its schools, hospitals, water supply, roads and policing — and who bear the consequences of local governance.

The answer is not to make enrolment harder for workers and students. It is to separate bona fide movers from tactical shifters, and to act firmly where deception is clear. There are five practical steps:

(1) The law already permits inquiry and deletion when a person has ceased to be ordinarily resident — after a notice and a hearing. Booth-level officers (BLOs) should record neighbours’ statements, verify occupancy and submit signed reports; EROs must apply their mind to each case.

(2) Cross-state deduplication: Configure ERO-Net to automatically flag Form 6 applications from persons who were enrolled in another state in the recent past; seek stronger proof (recent rent agreements, employment/education certificates, utility bills) before admitting such cases. This is not a barrier; it is a threshold of credibility where risk is high.

(3) Use the criminal deterrent — sparingly but visibly. Filing Form 6 with a knowingly false declaration (“I am not enrolled elsewhere”) is an offence under Section 31 of the Act. A handful of well-chosen prosecutions will do more than a thousand warnings. The aim is not mass punishment; it’s clear consequences for deliberate misrepresentation.

(4) Audit after the election. Randomly sample “new electors” in sensitive areas three months after polling. If a pattern emerges — many are no longer present and never were — that is actionable evidence, not rumour.

(5) Protect the genuine mover. Keep flexible documentation options (self-attested residence, employer or institution certificates) paired with BLO verification, so that poor, informal and mobile citizens are not excluded.

What of the much-discussed professor? If he truly ceased to be ordinarily resident in Delhi, moved to Bihar and actually lives there, his registration in Bihar would be lawful (and it should be deleted in Delhi). If he did not so move — and merely got it deleted in Delhi, enrolled in Bihar to vote and plans to restore himself as a voter in Delhi — that is a textbook case for inquiry, deletion and prosecution. The point is not to sensationalise one case, but to defend a clear principle through case-by-case, reasoned orders.

I have often said that the electoral roll is the soft underbelly of our democracy. It must be protected by cleaning it, not by cleansing the electorate. If the allegations regarding Bihar are true, they should be investigated — with notices, hearings and speaking orders. When misrepresentation is proven, delete and prosecute. Equally, genuine internal migrants must not be harassed; they are citizens, not suspects.

In the end, the rule is simple enough to be summed up in a short sentence: You vote where you live. Not where your ancestral house stands locked, not where your party wants you for a week, not where it is convenient on polling day. Ordinary residence is elastic enough to include students, seasonal workers and the homeless, but it is not a rubber band to be stretched for electoral convenience.

Electoral ‘tourism’ may make for clever videos, but it makes for bad democracy. Let’s shut the door on it — firmly, lawfully and fairly — by insisting on the law’s red line and the handbook’s due process: notice, hearing, reasoned order. That is how we protect the roll, the vote and the dignity of the voter.