NEW DELHI: Amid a major political storm over the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar electoral rolls, the poll panel on Saturday said that despite 24 hours having passed since the draft rolls were published, none of the political parties have filed even a single case of claims and objections.
Meanwhile, the Commission has approved a substantial hike in the honorarium for Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Supervisors, along with newly introduced payouts for senior officials overseeing electoral roll management.
In an official statement, the poll panel said, the draft Electoral Rolls of all the 90,712 polling booths of all 243 assembly constituencies have been shared with all the political parties by all 38 DEOs of Bihar on 1 August 2025.
It, however, said, “From 1 August 2025 (3 PM) till 2 August (3 PM), all political parties put together, have filed ‘Zero’ Claims and Objections for the addition of the names of eligible electors and deletion of the names of ineligible electors.”
The situation prevailed even though all political parties put together, including the RJD, Congress and CPI(M) and CPI(ML), who opposed the SIR exercise, have nominated 1,60,813 Booth Level Agents (BLA) and they have been registered with the ECI. The RJD has 47,506 BLAs, and the Congress has 17,549 BLAs registered with the ECI for the SIR exercise.
More to the SIR, the ECI has also launched a special campaign for the addition of the names of eligible young voters, who are attaining the age of 18 years from 1 July to 1 October, 2025. “From 1 August 2025 (3PM) till 2 August (3 PM), 3,223 young electors have filled their forms along with the Declaration.”
Meanwhile, the ECI said in a statement that the annual remuneration for BLOs has been doubled to Rs 12,000 from the previous Rs 6,000. BLO Supervisors will now receive Rs 18,000, up from Rs 12,000.
This is the first revision of pay since 2015, marking a significant shift in ECI’s approach toward field-level compensation.
More to these, in a first-of-its-kind initiative, honorariums will be provided to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs). “EROs will receive Rs 30,000 annually, and AEROs will be granted Rs 25,000, acknowledging their critical role in upholding accurate and transparent voter rolls,” the ECI said.
The poll panel further said that the incentive for BLOs involved in the revision of electoral rolls also sees an increase from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. “Moreover, BLOs deployed for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar will be eligible for an additional Rs 6,000 incentive.”
The Commission emphasised the pivotal role electoral staff play in ensuring purity and transparency in electoral rolls and reiterated its commitment to empowering field-level personnel.