NEW DELHI: Amid massive uproar over its conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and plans to expand the exercise across the country, the Election Commission of India (ECI), in a fresh campaign to garner public support, has posed a set of questions for people to ponder and respond to.
Officials in the ECI said the purpose of raising these questions was to seek people's support for the desired clean-up of the electoral rolls.
In its poser, the ECI first asked whether the poll panel should conduct the SIR at all, and whether the names of deceased persons should be deleted from the voters’ list.
The poll panel also asked whether the names of those whose entries appear in the rolls at two or more places should be deleted, and whether the names of those who have migrated elsewhere should also be removed.
The ECI further posed a question regarding foreign nationals whose names appear in the electoral rolls, asking if their names should be deleted as well.
A senior ECI official said, “We have asked people that if their answers to these questions are in the affirmative, they should contribute to this difficult exercise conducted by the poll panel and help make it successful.”
It may be noted that despite a Supreme Court direction on the issue, political parties have shown very limited involvement. The poll panel revealed that so far only 10 objections have been filed by parties in Bihar, even though 12 recognised parties have over 1.61 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs) across the state.
However, officials said public participation in Bihar has remained strong. With just five days left for the completion of the second phase of the current revision exercise, citizens and voters have submitted applications in large numbers—both for deleting ineligible entries and for enrolling eligible names.
The ECI has stressed that active cooperation from both political parties and the public is paramount in ensuring the free and fair completion of the SIR exercise and in the conduct of elections.