Door-To-Door Electoral Roll Verification Likely Before Bihar Polls: Sources

The Election Commission of India is contemplating intensive door-to-door verification during revision of electoral rolls for upcoming Bihar assembly polls, sources in the Commission said.

In past, persistent concerns have been raised often by various civil society organisations, political parties and agencies regarding the inclusion or deletion of names of the electors in the Electoral Rolls. 

Sanguine about its responsibility, the Election Commission has repeatedly emphasized that it is committed to ensuring that only genuine and eligible citizens are enrolled in the electoral rolls. 

Regular exercise of revision of the electoral rolls is undertaken annually throughout the country by the EC and also before the holding of elections/bye-polls.

Constitutional and legal frameworks are also quite clear and robust in this regard. Provisions regarding eligibility to be registered as a voter and disqualifications for registration in an electoral roll are clearly laid down in Article 326 of the Constitution of India and Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. 

Need for constant updation of electoral rolls arises due to various reasons. 

1. A key reason is the migration/shifting of electors: The country continuously witnesses inter-state, intra-state, inter-district and intra-district migration due to marriage, job opportunities, education, family requirements etc. For instance, forms received by the commission in 2024 indicates that 46.26 lakh people shifted residence, 2.32 crore applied for corrections and 33.16 lakh requested for replacement. Thus, in a single year, nearly 3.15 crore changes were required to be made across the country. 
2. Deletion of names of dead electors: Generally, number of deletions of dead voters is much lesser than the registered deaths, as families do not approach the ECI for deletion of names of their kin. 
3. Addition of names of young electors attaining the age of 18 years. 
4. Corrections in elector details such as names/photographs/address
5. Rationalisation of polling stations for various reasons, especially in view of the new limit set by the EC of 1,200 electors per polling station from the earlier 1500 and the Commission's commitment to ensure that no elector has to travel more than 2 km to cast their vote 
6. Identification and subsequent deletion names of illegal immigrants. 

The entire process of updation of electoral rolls is conducted as per the law/rules/instructions of the EC and sufficient opportunity is provided to political parties to file claims, objections and appeals before the final electoral is published. 

ut in spite of following a detailed protocol, insinuations and allegations are often made against the EC for arbitrarily inflating the electoral roll, even though the exercise is conducted with complete transparency and under constant scrutiny of the political parties.

Thus, in order to make the system completely robust and free of any kind of errors, the Commission is contemplating an intensive door-to-door verification during the upcoming electoral roll revision before Bihar assembly polls. 

Such intensive and rigorous revision of electoral rolls has been done in the past as well. The last such exercise was undertaken in 2004.