New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) As many as 127 claims and objections out of 10,570 received directly from electors concerning Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar have been disposed of by officials so far, said the ECI on Monday.
Even after 11 days of the publication of electoral draft rolls, none of the political parties has filed any complaint, the poll panel said.
On a day when Opposition party leaders, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were detained in Delhi during a protest against alleged manipulation of voter lists in some states, the ECI said that in Bihar since August 1 as many as 54,432 new electors, who have turned 18 after the SIR exercise, have filed forms for inclusion in the voter list.
The SIR exercise in Bihar has been attacked by the Opposition parties over alleged irregularities, which they allege threaten to deprive lakhs of voters of their right to vote – a charge denied by the ECI.
The poll panel published its draft electoral rolls on August 1 and has kept a window of one month for people, parties and their booth-level agents BLAs to bring their complaints and grievances regarding inclusion or exclusion from the draft electoral list.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has 47,506 BLAs, the Congress has 17,549, and the Left has over 2,000, all adding up to over 67,000.
The ECI has been routinely reaching out to political parties to join the revision exercise and bring to its notice instances of disenfranchisement, if any.
“Submit your claims and objections to rectify any errors in the draft Electoral Roll of Bihar published on August 1. So far, not even a single claim or objection has been submitted by any political party,” the EC said in a statement.
The ECI concluded the enumeration phase of the SIR from June 24 to July 25. More than 7.24 crore electors — out of a total of 7.89 crore — submitted their enumeration forms during the exercise.
At the end, about 65 lakh voters were found to be missing from the draft electoral rolls published on August 1. This included 22 lakh deceased electors (2.83 per cent), 36 lakh (4.59 per cent) who had permanently shifted or not found and seven lakh (0.89 per cent) who had enrolled at more than one place, ECI data showed.
The ECI reiterated on Monday that the SIR aims to ensure participation of all electors and all political parties; no eligible elector in Bihar is left behind; no temporary migrant from Bihar is left behind; no urban elector is left behind; no young elector is left behind; regular involvement of all electors and all political parties; assistance by entire election staff including volunteers; redressal of any issue raised during the enumeration phase; scrutiny of Draft Roll from August 1 till September 1 and no deletion from Draft Electoral Rolls without a speaking order.
The ECI also highlighted that between June 23 and July 25, the Congress has increased its BLAs to 17,549 (an increase of 105 per cent), Rashtriya Janata Dal to 47,506 (an increase of 1 per cent), Janata Dal (United) to 36,550 (an increase of 31 per cent) and BJP to 53,338 (an increase by 3 per cent).
–IANS
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