Bihar Opposition Slams Election Commission Over Voter List Review, Alleges Voter Suppression Plot

Patna: Bihar`s opposition parties have targeted the Election Commission (EC) over the special intensive review of the voters’ list even as a 9-member EC team on Thursday held discussions with senior state officials in this connection.

RJD leader Chittaranjan Gagan said that his party was against any such exercise. “We have told the Chief Election Commissioner that lakhs of families in the state do not have the documents that are being asked for, this is a conspiracy to stop lakhs of voters from voting,” he added.

CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that this exercise was not less than NRC (National Register of Citizens). “How such a huge exercise will be done in a month? All this is wrong. Elections should be held in a democratic way, in which everyone is included,” he contended.

Meanwhile, a 9-member EC team is on a three-day visit to Bihar to review preparations for the polls. The team held a high-level meeting with the chief electoral officer Vinod Singh Gunjiyal and other officials regarding the special intensive review of the voters’ list. The team also met the district election officers, divisional commissioners, and other officials. The EC is led by senior deputy election commissioner Maneesh Garg.

A state official said that BLOs (booth level officers) will go door-to-door to check the voters. This work will continue till July 26.

Sources said that the final voter list was likely to be released by September 30 while EC is expected to announce the poll schedule in the first week of October. On the other hand, polls are likely to be held in 2-3 phases in November.