The process of adding and deleting names in the voter list is going on in Bihar under Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The Election Commission (ECI) said on Tuesday that so far 1,62,453 applications have been received from individual voters in the round of claims and objections that started on August 1, out of which 17,516 applications have been disposed of. According to the Commission, the last date for filing claims and objections is September 1, that is, now only five days are left. These applications include the demand for adding new names as well as removing old names.
The Commission said that so far CPI(ML) Liberation is the only political party to have lodged 10 objections. The Commission expressed concern over the lack of active participation by political parties and recalled that despite repeated appeals, other parties did not show much interest in the process. The SIR was initiated on June 24 and the draft roll was published on August 1 and shared with all the 12 recognised parties.
According to the Election Commission, since August 1, 4,33,214 new young voters, who have attained the age of 18 years, have applied for inclusion of their names. The Commission clarified that inclusion of error-free names in the voter list is extremely important for strengthening democracy. The list for each polling station is prepared under a completely legal process.
The Commission said that about 1.6 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs) have been given the opportunity to participate in the process. These include 47,506 BLAs of RJD, 17,549 of Congress and more than 2,000 BLAs of Left parties, which together constitute more than 67,000 representatives. According to the rules, any name can be removed from the draft list only after the hearing and investigation is completed by issuing a notice of seven days by the concerned Election Officer (ERO/AERO). The list of names not included in the draft roll and the reason have been made available on the websites of District Election Officers (DEO), District Magistrate (DM) and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
This list can be searched through EPIC number. Those whose names have been left out can claim by filling Form 6 along with necessary documents including Aadhar card. Similarly, if there is an objection to the name of any voter, then objection can be lodged by filling Form 7. According to the rules, even a non-voter of a constituency can register an objection by giving a prescribed declaration or affidavit.
