Bihar SIR Phase 1 concludes, 65 lakh voters likely to be dropped from draft rolls

Since June 24, door-to-door checks by BLOs and BLAs found 22 lakh dead voters, 7 lakh with duplicate entries, and 35 lakh who have permanently shifted or couldn’t be traced during the SIR exercise.

Voters show the enumeration forms given by a Booth Level Officer (BLO) during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Vaishali district, Bihar Photo | PTI

PATNA: The first phase of the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has been completed, and the names of 65.2 lakh voters are likely to be excluded.

Data released by the Election Commission on Friday, the last day for submitting enumeration forms, shows that of the 65.2 lakh voters, of which 22 lakh are dead, 35 lakh have permanently shifted outside Bihar, 7 lakh are enrolled as voters in more than one place and 1.2 lakh are yet to submit their forms.

The Election Commission (EC) said 99.8% of Bihar's electors have been covered under the SIR exercise, which began in the state on June 24. Out of 7.9 crore electors, enumeration forms of 7.23 crore electors have been received and digitised, and their names will be included in the Draft Electoral Roll scheduled to be published on August 1.

The EC said that renumeration forms of remaining 1.2 lakh electors are yet to received. The election body said the digitisation of enumeration forms, along with BLO reports, of the remaining electors will also be completed by August 1.

Eligible voters whose names are left out can still be added after filling the prescribed forms during the next phase of the process between August 1 and September 1, and parties can also file objections to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for the removal of ineligible voters, EC said.

In a statement, EC said that the lists of those electors who have not filled their enumeration forms or are deceased and those who have permanently shifted have already been shared with all 12 recognised political parties.

The political parties have collectively nominated 1,60813 BLAs so that errors, if any, can be rectified in the Draft Electoral Rolls to be published on August 1.

The parties include the Congress, which has nominated 17,549 BLAs (Booth Level Agents) and RJD with 47,506 BLAs. The other political parties which have been given the lists include BJP, BSP, CPM, JD(U), RLSP, CPI-ML (Liberation), RLJP, LJP(RV), NPP and AAP.

Sharing details of BLAs of some parties, EC said that the BJP has nominated the highest 53,338, JD(U) 36,550, RLSP 270, RLJP 1,913 and LJP(RV) 1,210.