Why Poll Body Is Revising Bihar Voter List. Why Opposition Is Against It

As Bihar gears up for Assembly polls later this year, the Election Commission's launch of a Special Intensive Revision of the state's voter list has sparked a massive row. While the poll body stresses that this revision is aimed at ensuring transparency and weeding out ineligible voters, Congress and other Opposition parties have alleged that it will exclude genuine voters. The ruling BJP has shot back, accusing the Congress of trying to shield fake voters.

What Is Special Intensive Revision

Launched on June 24, the Special Intensive Revision aims to add the names of eligible citizens to the voter list and weed out ineligible voters. The last such revision for Bihar was carried out in 2003. The Election Commission has said multiple reasons, such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and the inclusion of names of foreign illegal immigrants, have made this revision necessary.

How Will This Be Done

For this revision, the Election Commission has said, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct a house-to-house survey to verify voters by reviewing documents. The poll body has said it will strictly follow provisions regarding voter eligibility and grounds for disqualification. The Election Commission has said poll officials have been asked to ensure that genuine electors, particularly old, sick, Persons with Disabilities (PwD), poor and other vulnerable groups are not harassed and facilitated to the extent possible. It has also sought help from political parties to ensure discrepancies are resolved at the preparation stage of the revised voter roll.

The Process: Step By Step

The poll body has said the Electoral Registration Officer would give the Enumeration Forms and give it to BLOs. The BLOs would distribute these forms to electors through house visits and guide them to fill them up. Forms and documents can also be uploaded online. Once the forms are submitted and checked, a draft electoral roll will be published on the ECI/CEO website and shared with political parties. Voters or political parties can flag objections to the draft list. After a decision on these objections, a final list will be published.

Migration A Key Factor

A large chunk of Bihar residents migrate to other states for work and visit their hometown only during festivals. Most of them do not hold a voter card in their place of work and have retained their voting rights at their home constituency. This is the most vulnerable group as far as the current revision is concerned. The Representation of the People Act says "a person shall not be deemed to be ordinarily resident in a constituency on the ground only that he owns, or is in possession of, a dwelling house therein". In that case, many of these migrants must prove their voting rights in Bihar if they want to continue as Bihar voters, or they must enrol in the voter list at their place of work. As per law, no person is entitled to be registered in the electoral roll for more than one constituency.

What Has Chief Election Commissioner Said

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has said eligible citizens should register themselves as voters only in constituencies where they are ordinary residents and not the place where they own a house. "As per the Representation of the People Act, you are entitled to vote only in the assembly constituency where you are an ordinary resident. For example, if you ordinarily reside in Delhi but own a house in Patna, your vote should be registered in Delhi, not in Patna."

Officials have said many voters have a voter card where they stay now, and also retain their earlier card from before migration. This is a criminal offence.

The 2003 Voter List Standard

The poll body has said that about 4.96 crore voters -- 60 per cent of the total Bihar electors -- whose names are in the 2003 special intensive revision need not submit any supporting document. The remaining need to provide one of the 11 listed documents to establish their place or date of birth. If a voter's name is not on the 2003 list, but his parents' names are on the list, he or she needs to submit only documents proving their place/date of birth.

Why Is Opposition Protesting

Main Opposition Congress has said the voter list revision carries the risk of "willful exclusion" of voters using state machinery. A group of Congress leaders has said the poll body wants to discard the current electoral rolls entirely and create a fresh roll for Bihar. "This is a clear and explicit admission by the EC that all is not well with India's electoral rolls. Exactly what the Congress party and the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, have been repeatedly pointing out with evidence from Maharashtra," the group said in a statement.

"But the revision is a devious and dubious idea in the disguise of a solution. Lakhs of union and state government officials will now control and dictate who has correct documents and who doesn't, who gets to vote in the upcoming Bihar elections etc. This carries a huge risk of willful exclusion of voters using the power of the state machinery," it said.

Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly, said this revision months ahead of the Bihar election is a "conspiracy". "The last time the routine process of revision of voter list was done was 2003... it has not happened since. And when it happened in 2003, it took about two years to complete," he said.

"Now elections are to be held in November. Two months are left before the notification process begins. That means the Election Commission has to make a new list... of 8 crore people... in just 25 days. And that too when 73 per cent of the state is affected by floods!" the RJD leader told NDTV in an interview.

A delegation of INDIA bloc leaders from 11 parties met top Election Commission officials yesterday to register their opposition to the Special Intensive Revision, calling it the "worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution."

BJP's Counter

The ruling BJP has said that the exercise is being conducted to ensure the integrity of the electoral process. "When the same ECI conducts elections in Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, and Congress wins there, they raise no questions. However, this same party raises questions about the electoral process in Maharashtra and Haryana," party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, criticising the Congress.

BJP's Bihar unit chief, Dilip Jaiswal, said it is the Election Commission's responsibility to ensure elections are conducted with complete transparency. "If any political party opposes this, it is wrong. Fake voting can be prevented by the revision of the voter list. Voters who have died will be identified. This process will also make it clear whether the voter is actually in Bihar or voting somewhere else. This is a very necessary step for transparency," he said.

BJP leader and Bihar minister Nitin Nabin has questioned Congress's intent behind opposing the exercise. "If genuine voters are being verified and fake voters are being removed, is Congress sitting here to commit fraud? I want to ask the Opposition members who are opposing this, are you trying to gain power through fake votes?"