Dead, shifted, registered twice: 35 lakh to be removed from Bihar voter list so far, 11 days to go

With 11 days remaining in the SIR, 88.18% or 6.6 crore electors have either submitted enumeration forms or been found dead, migrated or dual-registered

At least 35 lakh names are set to be excluded from the list of electors in Bihar when the draft electoral rolls are published, as per details collected so far, the Election Commission (EC) has said.

Voters show the enumeration forms given by a Booth Level Officer during the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. (@ECISVEEP)

With 11 days of the exercise remaining, the commission said 88.18% of the 7.89 crore names on the earlier list have been covered in the enumeration, as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list ahead of the Bihar assembly elections due in October-November.

The EC's move regarding the revision of the electoral list has seen intense criticism from the opposition, and has landed in the Supreme Court too. The assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year.

Here's the breakdown

• The poll body said that after two rounds of door-to-door visits, 88.18% or 6.6 crore electors either submitted their enumeration forms or have died, shifted to other places, or found to have been registered at two places.
• So, 35 lakh of the 6.6 crore have been excluded (around 5%) on these counts so far, according to a report in NDTV.
• Those rejected/excluded include 12.5 lakh voters (1.59%) who have died but their names remained on the list; another 17.5 lakh electors (2.2%) who have permanently shifted out of Bihar; and 5.5 lakh (0.73%) found to be registered in two places, the EC said.

"Only 11.82 per cent of electors now remain to submit their filled EFs and many of them have sought time to submit their forms with documents in the coming days," the commission said.

The poll body said the draft electoral roll will be published on August 1. Names for which no enumeration form has been submitted before July 25 will not appear in the draft roll, it said.

The electors who miss the initial deadline can still apply during the claims and objections period using Form 6 along with a declaration form. Booth-level agents (BLAs) can continue to submit up to 10 forms per day even after the draft roll is published. The final electoral roll will be published on September 30.

The electoral revision issue was also brought to the Supreme Court after more than 10 petitions were filed in the apex court, including one by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, the lead petitioner.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court, however, allowed the EC to continue with its special scrutiny of the electoral roll in Bihar, calling it a "constitutional mandate". It also asked the poll panel to consider Aadhaar, voter-ID and ration cards as valid documents for the identification of voters during the exercise.