New Delhi/Patna, Aug 5 (IANS) Despite Opposition parties’ criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Bihar, not a single alleged irregularity in the exercise has been brought to the notice of the ECI yet by their over 67,000 booth level agents (BLA), an election office source said on Tuesday.
Since the release of the draft voter list on August 1, the state election office has received applications from 2864 individual electors for inclusion or deletion of names in the draft voter list.
Sources in the Bihar election office said that, contrary to the Opposition parties’ allegations and narrative that the SIR threatens to disenfranchise a large number of electors, the Opposition parties have not brought to our notice even a single infirmity in the exercise.
Not a single claim or objection has been filed by any political party since August 1, said the poll panel.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has 47,506 booth-level agents (BLAs), the Congress has 17,549, and the Left has over 2,000, all adding up to over 67,000.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been regularly reaching out to political parties to join the revision exercise and bring to its notice instances of disenfranchisement, if any.
Draft Electoral Rolls of all the 90,712 polling booths of all 243 Assembly Constituencies have been shared with all the political parties by all 38 DEOs of Bihar on August 1, 2025, the ECI said.
For claims and objections for the addition of the names of eligible electors, the ECI has shared with all political parties a list of those electors whose names were there in the June 24 Electoral Roll, but are not there in the August 1 draft Electoral Roll, the ECI had earlier said in a statement.
The ECI last month concluded the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, 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.
In the end, 65 lakh voters did not figure in the state’s new 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.
“This large-scale campaign, which began just a few months before the high-stakes Bihar assembly elections, was aimed at ensuring ‘No Elector Left Behind’, with a focus on first-time voters, urban populations, migrants, and vulnerable groups such as the elderly and persons with disabilities,” said an official statement.
–IANS
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