E-Paper
Bihar SIR found no ‘foreign voter’ in Kishanganj, Araria border districts
The EC found no "foreign voters" in Bihar's Kishanganj or Araria during a revision of electoral rolls, addressing local concerns about citizenship.
The Election Commission of India’s special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar did not find even one “foreign voter” in either Kishanganj or Araria, local officials said.
Kishanganj has Nepal on one side, and abuts North Bengal’s tea belt on the other, and Araria shares a border with Nepal, and the belief was that there would some people from Nepal and Bangladesh who had managed to get on to the voter rolls in the two districts.
But Kishanganj district magistrate Vishal Raj said that during SIR, no voter of suspected foreign origin was eventually found. “We issued notices to some voters under doubtful domicile. They were asked to produce their valid documents, to prove their citizenship and they duly produced their papers to the officials concerned,” he said.
Araria District Magistrate Anil Kumar too said there were no people of foreign origin on the rolls. “We deleted around 1.4 lakh voters’ names under the ‘absent, shifted, dead (ASD) columns and all the political parties were provided due information about it.”
The spectre of foreign nationals getting onto the rolls and influencing polls was an issue that was unnecessarily blown out of proportion said Anupama Thakur, a village head in Galgalia block of Kishanganj district. She added that barring some newly-wed brides from Nepal, everyone in her area had valid identity proofs.
“SIR is a non-issue in Thakurganj assembly constituency as blocks like Galgalia are a border economy, not just a border geography. Trucks, mini-tempos, pick-up vans, bikes — the movement across this belt is not ornamental. It is about livelihoods.”
Residents don’t oppose vigilance — but fear bureaucratic reflex.
And when border checks come up, Thakur added, trade suffers.
Bachh Raj (35), a Thakurganj resident, said that the demand of people is simple: match security with efficiency. “Don’t halt trade every time there is a scare across the fence. And, don’t create unnecessary communal panic. A hype was created about SIR.”
Part of the problem is because many people from Kishanganj work in tea gardens in North Bengal.
“For youth, especially diploma holders and intermediate pass boys, the local labour market shrinks with the hills. Job is not a slogan here. Job is literally the distance between border being open or closed,” said Mohammad Hafiz (45), a tea shop owner in Kishanganj .
“This is a district where many families straddle three realities — Nepal relatives, Bengal jobs, and Bihar addresses. Documentation is often fragmented. When BLOs and officials started extra-verification this year, rumours spread faster than information. Iss baar kisi ka naam kat gaya toh — was a sentence heard repeatedly in Galgalia. But thank God, nothing bad happened,” added Mohammad Islamuddin (55), a footwear shop owner in Galgalia .
Across Kishanganj district, there are more pressing issues than SIR, said Mohammad Mintullah, a bookseller in Kishanganj .
“The Mahananda and Kankai (rivers) have repeatedly damaged our small roads, eaten embankments and frayed nerves. Every monsoon, Thakurganj and Pothia blocks rehearse the same panic. Villagers here are not even asking for mega projects. They are asking for preventive work — pitching stones, strengthening spurs, preventing breaches — before the water rises”
The people here want the government to work on “embankments now”, he added, “not after results”.
