3 weeks on, EC receives 2 objections from party against poll roll in Bihar

Since August 1, when the window opened, the poll panel has been publishing daily updates, which showed zero claims or objections filed by political parties despite the Opposition's allegations of addition and deletion of names in the draft rolls.

The EC officials have been saying that responses were awaited from political parties to raise any objections or claims they might have regarding the draft electoral roll, for which they have time till September 1.

The draft electoral rolls for Bihar were uploaded on the EC website on August 1. During the special intensive revision exercise, it was found that 65 lakh people had either died, permanently shifted or had voter ID cards in two different places. Such voters face the prospect of deletion of their names from the electoral rolls after September 1.

Congress-led opposition parties have been alleging that SIR was aimed at systematically removing poor, migrant and marginalised voters from the original list of voters in Bihar.

Earlier this week, RJD leader Manoj Jha alleged that when their party's booth-level assistants (BLAs) approach election authorities to register their objections, they were turned away and therefore no objections had been filed till August 21 by political parties, especially those from the opposition untill today, when two claims for objections were received by the EC from Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist) (Liberation), which is part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc.

The poll panel says that one BLA appointed by political parties can collect Claims Form 6) from public and Objection (Form 7) from public and file objection himself/herself along with the prescribed declaration. Generic complaints, without prescribed forms or declaration are not counted as claims (Form 6) and objections (Form 7), it added.

However, the poll panel said 84,305 claims regarding inclusion of eligible voters or exclusion of ineligible voters had been received by the EC directly from the general public. Of these, 6,092 had been addressed or disposed off within the mandatory seven-day period, it stated.

Out of the 65 lakh voters who face prospects of being deleted from the draft rolls in Bihar, around 22 lakh of them are 'dead'. The Opposition has questioned whether these 22 lakh 'dead' voters had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, while alleging theft of votes by the BJP-ruled NDA government at the Centre.