The Election Commission (EC) on Friday published the draft electoral rolls for Bihar, following the completion of the contentious and month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of upcoming assembly polls.
No compiled list was made available, but voters can check their names on the EC's website.
There were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state before the SIR began in June, according to the EC. It is yet to be known how many voters are in the just-published draft rolls.
The publication of the draft rolls also kicked off the process of "claims and objections", which would continue till September 1, and during the period, voters with complaints of wrongful deletion of names can approach the authorities concerned seeking a remedy.
Assembly elections would be due in the state later this year.
Critics of the exercise, who felt it was being undertaken to "help" the ruling NDA in the upcoming polls, which the JD(U)-BJP combine will face with an incumbency of 20 years, moved the Supreme Court, which said earlier this week that the SIR should result in "en masse inclusion and not en masse exclusion."
Earlier, political leaders such as CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who is also one of the petitioners who moved the Supreme Court, had voiced concerns that the ruling dispensation would try to play its "the real game" during the claims and objections phase, with the help of "empowered" but pliant EROs and AEROs.
Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, recently created a flutter by threatening to "boycott" the upcoming elections if concerns were not addressed squarely.
What is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?
The Election Commission on June 24 issued a notification to begin a door-to-door verification of Bihar's eight crore voters.
According to the process, all voters in the state are required to sign enumeration forms, in duplicates, that come with their names, addresses and photographs printed, and return these with fresh photographs along with a valid proof of residence.
However, those whose names were not in the electoral rolls of 2003 will have to provide additional documents, a feature of the SIR that has been the main bone of contention.
The objective of SIR is to ensure that the names of all eligible citizens are included in the electoral rolls so as to enable them to exercise their franchise. The revision is being carried out under Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act (RP Act), which authorises the EC to undertake special revisions at any time for reasons recorded in writing.
The last intensive revision for Bihar was conducted by the poll panel in 2003. The exercise is being executed by one lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs), aided by four lakh volunteers and thousands of Booth Level Agents (BLAs) nominated by political parties.
The EC has cited large-scale additions and deletions in the electoral rolls over the past 20 years, driven by migration and urbanisation, as a key reason for the fresh revision. The Commission has also noted that the presence of duplicate entries necessitates a clean-up. Although the plan is to extend SIR to the rest of the country, the exercise is currently being rolled out only in Bihar, which heads to polls later this year.
Unlike the 2003 revision where enumerators conducted house-to-house verification using printed voter lists, the 2024 SIR requires voters to proactively submit enumeration forms to BLOs.
Electors registered as of January 2003 do not need to submit additional documents beyond the 2003 roll extract. However, voters added post-2003 must furnish documentation establishing their date and place of birth, along with that of their parent(s), where applicable.
