In spite of continuous Opposition party criticism of Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has said it has not received any formal complaints from political parties on matters of claims or objections to draft voters' lists.
The ECI, instead, reported, all formal requests have hitherto been received from individual voters and 28,370 applications have been made for inclusion or deletion of names.
As per the August 15 daily bulletin of the Commission — from August 1 (3 p.m.) till August 15 (9 a.m.) — 1,60,813 Booth Level Agents have been put out by political parties in the state. They comprise 53,338 from the Bharatiya Janata Party, 47,506 from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, 36,550 from the Janata Dal (United), and 17,549 from the Indian National Congress, among others.
Although no party, not even Opposition parties, have made formal objections or claims, 28,370 such requests have been made by individual electors, of which 857 already have been done under mandatory verification. 1,03,703 have come to the ECI from first-time voters, aged 18 years and above, and six of these have been sent through BLAs.
The Commission again emphasized that all objections and claims are dealt with by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) only after a period of seven days for verification. Importantly, no name in the draft rolls published on August 1 can be erased without a formal "speaking order" following due inquiry and giving the affected voter an opportunity to have their say.
This lack of official complaints by political parties is at direct variance from their habitual public claims of partiality and procedural impropriety. The figures imply that while parties are participating through their BLAs, they have not yet challenged the fairness of the revision in an official capacity before the ECI.
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