Election Commission Releases Final Voter List After Special Intensive Revision Ahead Of Assembly Polls In Bihar

New Delhi: Ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process has concluded and the Election Commission has released the final electoral list. The poll body on Tuesday released the final voter list after SIR in Bihar. The revised list has been made available on the official website of the poll body. 

The state polls in Bihar will be held using this electoral roll. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar has stated that physical copies of the roll will be distributed to all District Election Officers who also serve as District Magistrates. The final roll will also be shared with all recognised national and state political parties. 

The revison was done after a gap of 22 years. 65 lakh voters had been removed from the draft electoral rolls, including those who had died, permanently moved out of the state, or were registered as voters in multiple locations. The Supreme Court is also hearing petitions against the SIR exercise.

SC Hearing Petition

The Supreme Court while hearing a petition on September 8 had ordered the poll body to accept Aadhaar as proof of identity for addition to the voter list and include it in the list of 11 other documents for the purpose. It had clarified, however, that Aadhaar could not be used to establish citizenship. The final hearing on the SIR process is scheduled for October 7.

In the final rolls, 88,108 voters have increased in Muzaffarpur district, from 32,03,370 in the draft roll to 32,91,478 now. In Patna district, the number of voters has gone up by 1,63,600 and by 30,491 in Nawada district.

The SIR exercise sparked a controversy, with Opposition parties accusing the Election Commission of tampering with the voter list to favor the Bhartiya Janata Party.