Bangladesh, Afghanistan Voters Among Other Nationals In Bihar List: Sources

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued nearly 3,00,000 notices to electors after discrepancies were found in their voter identification documents during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls. 

According to Election Commission sources, in several cases, nationals from neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh and Nepal, and even some from Myanmar and Afghanistan, were discovered holding Indian voter identity cards. The discrepancies emerged during document verification carried out by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). 

"A thorough verification will be carried out between August 1 and 30, and names found not eligible will be excluded from the final voter list set to be published on September 30," an ECI source said. "During house-to-house visits for SIR in Bihar, a large number of people from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar have been found by BLOs. These persons have been able to procure all documents, including Aadhaar, domicile certificate, ration card, etc." 

Field inquiries were subsequently conducted, following which formal notices were issued. Each affected elector is being directed to appear before authorities within seven days to clarify or rectify their records.

The ECI confirmed that as of Thursday, it has received a total of 1,95,802 applications from individual voters seeking either inclusion or deletion of names from the draft rolls. Out of these, 24,991 applications have already been disposed of by EROs.  The poll body has not yet clarified how many applications pertained to new inclusions versus exclusions.

The CPI(ML) has filed 79 petitions, while the principal opposition party in Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), has filed three. No other recognised state or national political party, including the BJP and Congress, has filed objections so far, despite there being three days remaining in the claims and objections period.

The draft voter list was published on August 1, with the SIR exercise having commenced on June 24. According to the poll body, documents of 99.11 per cent of Bihar's 7.24 crore electors have already been verified. Between June 24 and August 24, nearly 98.2 per cent of electors submitted their documents.

The Supreme Court has directed the ECI to accept Aadhaar cards or any of the 11 other officially listed documents from citizens seeking inclusion. The commission, in turn, has requested the court to place its trust in the ongoing verification process.