Politics News

EC Meets Leaders on Bihar Voter Revision

New Delhi: Representatives of various political parties met the Election Commission officials led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to discuss the issues related to Special Intensive Revision in Bihar. Besides CEC Kumar, Election Commissioners Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi also met the representatives of the Congress, RJD, CPI-M and CPI-ML. The EC also asked the political parties to appoint more Booth Level Agents to oversee the process now instead of complaining later and spreading misinformation, sources said. Some of the participants were given an appointment and others were allowed to join the meeting without any prior appointment, as the Commission decided to meet two representatives from every party to elicit their views on SIR. The Commission stated that SIR is being conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Article 326, Representation of People Act, 1950 and instructions issued on June 24, 2025. The party representatives raised various concerns related to SIR which were addressed by the Commission, the panel said in a statement. The Commission hailed all the political parties for appointing more than 1.5 lakh Booth Level Agents at the ground level for actively participating in the SIR exercise so that no eligible voter is left out, it said. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi who met the poll pane;l officials said: "Firstly, the last revision was in 2003. For 22 years, more than four of five Bihar elections have happened. Were all those elections faulty?... Secondly the Special Intensive Revision, which was held in 2003, was held one year before the Lok Sabha Elections, two years before the Assembly election. Today you are having in July, a maximum period of one or two months for an electoral revision exercise of the second most largest electoral populated state in India, called Bihar." "You want to have it in one and a half to two months...This empowerment is the worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution...Today, every word counts, even if you wrongfully delete or wrongfully add a single voter, it is creating a non-level playing field that affects democracy and elections," he added. Emerging from the meeting, RJD MP Manoj Jha said: "We all have kept the worry of Bihar in front of them...I have handed over to them the letter of the RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. This is a conspiracy to evict people...If the purpose of any exercise is exclusion instead of inclusion, then what can we say...They had no answer when we asked that the exercise (Special Intensive Revision), which had not been done in 22 years, was being done now? Nearly one Lakh trained Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and 1 Lakh Volunteers are being engaged by 243 Electoral Registration Officers, 38 District Election Officers, nine Divisional Commissioners and Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar. These booth-level agents (BLAs) raise claims and objections about the inclusion or deletion of voters and check poll officials from taking arbitrary decisions. In addition, National and State Political Parties registered and recognised by EC have engaged more than 1.5 Lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) for every polling station. As the special intensive review of the electoral roll of Bihar gathers pace, political parties in the state have started appointing more booth-level agents who coordinate with the poll machinery during preparation and revision of the voters' list. These booth-level agents (BLAs) raise claims and objections about the inclusion or deletion of voters. According to the latest data, the BJP had 51,964 BLAs, and the number as on Wednesday stands at 52,698, an official said, citing the latest data. The CPI(M) has increased its BLAs manifold, with the number now going up to 578 compared to 76 in the field prior to the exercise. The number of BLAs appointed by the Congress has doubled from 8,586 to 16,500. The Bahujan Samaj Party had 26 BLAs before the special review began last week. The number of its BLAs now stands at 74. The BJP, Congress, CPI(M) and the BSP are recognised national parties. Various opposition parties have criticised the SIR , claiming the exercise could deprive genuine voters of their right to vote to benefit the ruling dispensation in Bihar. The electoral rolls were prepared afresh through various intensive revisions either across the country or in parts, nine times in the 52-year period from 1952 to 2004 -- once nearly every six years on average. However, intensive revision has not been done in the last 22 years. On its part, the poll authority has already appointed nearly 78,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and is appointing nearly 21,000 more for new polling stations. The Commission had recently trained BLAs from eight political parties from Bihar about their role and responsibility. The Election Commission will carry out the intensive review of electoral rolls this year in five states and the Union Territory of Puducherry, beginning with Bihar, to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth. Bihar is going to the polls later this year, while the Assembly polls in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are scheduled in 2026. The move, which would be expanded to other states, assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various states on illegal foreign migrants, including from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Latest Stories

Read Full Story