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Progress in Bihar's Electoral Roll Revision

On Sunday, the Election Commission announced that it has successfully received documentation from 98.2% of voters during the second phase of the intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

The draft electoral rolls, released on August 1, indicated that approximately 65.6 lakh names were removed. This included 22 lakh due to deaths, 36 lakh for individuals who had either moved permanently or were untraceable, and seven lakh for duplicate entries, as reported by the commission.

Voters have until September 1 to submit any additional documents and raise claims or objections regarding the draft rolls.

The commission emphasized that this period allows electors to correct any inaccuracies in the draft rolls and to provide any necessary documentation that may have been omitted during the enumeration process.

With just eight days remaining until the September 1 deadline, the commission noted that only 1.8% of electors still need to submit their documents.

Claims and objections have been filed for 0.16% of the 7.24 crore electors listed in the draft rolls. Among these, 1,21,143 claims or objections were submitted by individuals, while 10 were filed by political party booth-level agents.

The verification of claims and objections, along with the assessment of eligibility documents, is expected to conclude by September 25, with the final electoral rolls set to be published on September 30.

The Election Commission initiated the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar on June 24.

As part of this initiative, individuals whose names were absent from the 2003 voter list are required to provide proof of their eligibility to vote.

Voters born before July 1, 1987, must present evidence of their date and place of birth, while those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, need to provide documentation verifying the date and place of birth of one parent.

For individuals born after December 2, 2004, proof of date of birth for themselves and both parents is necessary.

The draft voter list, published on August 1, includes electors who submitted their enumeration forms to the commission between June 24 and July 26.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that voters excluded from Bihar's draft electoral rolls can apply online for inclusion by submitting their Aadhaar cards or any of the 11 documents recognized by the Election Commission.

On August 14, the court instructed the Election Commission to publish a district-wise list of names removed from the draft rolls, along with the reasons for their exclusion. It also mandated that public notices clarify that individuals excluded from the draft list released on August 1 can present their Aadhaar cards when submitting claims for inclusion in the final list.

Initially, Aadhaar was not included among the 11 accepted forms of identification by the commission, leading to objections from several petitioners who deemed this exclusion as unreasonable.

On August 19, the Election Commission confirmed that those dissatisfied with being omitted from the draft voters’ list in Bihar can file claims using their Aadhaar cards.