Our Bureau
Patna
It was reported that this Friday on July 25th, the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of Bihar has been completed. They have concluded that the names of around 65.2 lakh voters are likely to be excluded from the list.
25th July was the last day for submitting enumeration forms and as per the data released by the Election Commission (EC) today, there are a total of 65.2 lakh voters that need to be excluded. Out of these 65.2 lakh, 22 lakh are dead while 35 lakh have permanently shifted their residence outside the state, 7 lakh are enrolled as voters in more than one place and the rest 1.2 lakh are yet to submit their forms.
The EC has claimed that under the SIR exercise they have covered around 99.8% of the total electors of Bihar They have confirmed that out of the total 7.9 crore electors, they have received and digitised the forms of over 7.23 crore people and their names will be included in the final draft electoral roll.
The EC has also stated that the eligible voters whose names were left off the list still can be added to the list. The commission said that they will have to fill the prescribed forms when they conduct the next phase of the exercise next month between August 1st and September 1st. They have also reported that the parties can also file objections to the commission for the removal of voters who are ineligible.
Although the EC have faced heavy hostility for their SIR exercise from the opposition with questions over the rushed manner of conducting the exercise, the commission has stated that it was necessary as the last revision was done 22 years ago back in 2003.
