Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday expressed his appreciation to the people of Bihar for their active participation in the current Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls — an important exercise to cleanse the state's voter list.
"I thank all eligible electors of Bihar for seriously taking part in the much-needed purification of the electoral rolls," Kumar said, as the state is nearing the end of its voter counting phase, with the draft electoral roll to be published on August 1.
As per information released by the Election Commission of India (ECI), of Bihar's 7.89 crore enrolled voters, close to 7 crore — an impressive 88.65% — have filled in their enumeration forms till now. Of these submissions, 81.96% have already been digitised and transferred to the central system.
As part of the continuing process of voter verification, more than 35.6 lakh electors were missing from their registered addresses. These include about 12.55 lakh who are likely to have died, 17.37 lakh who are likely to have moved permanently, and a further 5.76 lakh voters who were registered at multiple places.
In order to make a thorough verification, the Election Commission intends to provide this information to political parties and approximately 1.5 lakh Booth Level Agents from July 17. They will assist in verifying the status of voters prior to the last cut-off date of July 25.
Campaigns are also being launched to cover all eligible voters. Special camps are being organized in 5,683 wards of 261 urban local bodies in Bihar to enable on-the-spot verification.
Moreover, the voters outside Bihar — even the migrants — can finish the process online through the ECINet mobile application or the Election Commission website.
With only 6.85% of the voters remaining, the Commission is positive that it can achieve almost complete coverage before the window for verification shuts.
The SIR campaign in Bihar is a significant step toward improving voter data and highlights the Election Commission's desire for electoral integrity and transparency in the run-up to the state's forthcoming Assembly polls.
