Hoping for greater accuracy in electoral rolls in Bihar where assembly polls are due later this year, the Election Commission is considering intensive door-to-door checks during the revision of the voter list in the state.
Officials pointed out on Sunday that the problem of inclusion or deletion of names from the electoral roll has been raised with the Election Commission persistently by several civil society organisations, political parties and others. Several parties including Congress have accused the poll authority of fudging data to favour the BJP.
Officials lament that even after following a detailed protocol, insinuations and allegations are generally raised against the Election Commission regarding arbitrary inflation of the electoral roll despite this exercise is ongoing with total transparency and under continuous scrutiny of political parties.
To ensure the system is robust and error-free, the poll panel is considering an intensive house-to-house verification as part of the upcoming electoral roll revision before Bihar assembly polls to “purify” the electoral rolls, as per the sources.
They said there has been such an intensive and rigorous revision of rolls in the past too, the last such exercise being held in 2004.
The EC undertakes a regular exercise of revision of the electoral rolls every year throughout the country, and also before the elections or by-polls.
The position for eligibility to be registered as a voter and disqualification is clearly stated in Article 326 of the Constitution and in Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
Voter list is kept revised regularly since the death of voters and inclusion of new voters. The continuous movement of voters between states or within the equivalent state is another big reason why rolls must be updated.
For example, in the year 2024 alone, according to forms received by the EC, 46.26 lakh people moved home, 2.32 crore made applications for corrections, and 33.16 lakh made applications for replacement. So, therefore, in just one year, there were nearly 3.15 crore amendments to be made across the country.
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