Have decoded Bihar intensive revision to political parties: EC-OxBig News Network

With political parties flagging their concerns over the ongoing special intensive revision of Bihar’s electoral roll, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday said it has decoded the entire exercise to a group of opposition parties to assuage their fears.

The poll authority had met representatives of various political parties here on Wednesday and heard their concerns, issues and queries raised by them and “decoded for them the entire special intensive revision”.

Representatives of the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, DMK, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, Communist Party of India and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackrey) had met the poll panel.

The EC told the parties that the exercise is being held in a planned, structured and phased manner to facilitate the inclusion of all eligible citizens.

In the first phase, from June 25 to July 3, enumeration forms are being printed and distributed to the approximately 7.90 crore electors in Bihar.

Electoral registration officers are making available partially pre-filled forms, based on existing records through the nearly 78,000 booth level officers (BLOs) pressed into action.

The BLOs are delivering the enumeration forms door-to-door to all the electors whose names are on the electoral roll as on June 24. Booth level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties can also submit up to 50 certified forms per day.

In the second phase, the enumeration forms will be filled and are to be submitted before July 25. To support this process, nearly four lakh volunteers are available to assist voters alongside the BLOs.

Electors whose names exist in the electoral roll as on January 1, 2003, are only required to submit the enumeration forms along with an extract of the roll. They don’t have to submit any other document.

Those not listed in the 2003 roll will need to submit one of 11 documents for their date of birth/place of birth.

These physical forms will be submitted to the respective electoral registration officers or assistant electoral registration officers. A facility for online submission of enumeration forms has been developed to ease the process.

In the fourth phase, the draft electoral roll will be published on August 1. The list will include all electors whose forms have been received by the deadline.

Names for which no enumeration form has been submitted before July 25 will not appear in the draft roll.

Electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers will scrutinise the forms against the eligibility criteria laid down in Article 326 of the Constitution, which requires electors to be Indian citizens, aged 18 or above, and ordinarily resident in the constituency.

Copies of the draft roll will be provided to recognised political parties free of cost and uploaded on the EC website.

Electors who miss the initial deadline can still apply during the claims and objections period using Form 6 along with a declaration form. BLAs can continue to submit up to 10 forms per day even after the draft roll is published.

In the fifth phase, from August 1 to September 1, any member of the public can file claims and objections. During this time, the electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers will scrutinise applications and objections.

The public can file claims for inclusion or raise objections to existing entries in the draft roll. No deletion will be made without due inquiry and providing the person concerned a fair hearing.

The final electoral roll will be published on September 30.