Patna: Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday claimed that a staggering 89 lakh complaints of irregularities were flagged by the party's Booth Level Agents (BLAs) in Bihar during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, but all were rejected by the Election Commission. Alleging that the irregularities cast a doubt on the intention of the EC, Khera demanded that the entire exercise be conducted again.
However, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar asserted that, till date, no BLA authorised by any district president of the Congress in Bihar has submitted any claim or objection on any deleted name.
"The EC keeps getting news planted through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the SIR to the EC," Khera, chairman of the media and publicity department of the Congress, said in a press conference.
"When our BLAs went to lodge grievances, their complaints were turned down by the EC. The EC categorically told our BLAs that complaints could be accepted by individuals only, not by political parties," Khera claimed.
Demand Made By The Congress Party
The Congress demands that the entire SIR exercise be reconducted, he said, adding that the "large-scale irregularities" in the SIR cast a doubt on the intentions of the EC. "Our BLAs left no stone unturned in filing complaints and objections of those voters whose names were deleted, and all applications were submitted to the District Election Officer (DEOs) concerned," he said.
The senior Congress leader said the names of 65 lakh voters of Bihar were deleted from the electoral rolls by the EC from 90,540 booths in the state. While 25 lakh voters were deleted due to migration, the names of 22 lakh people were removed as they are not alive. Names of 9,70,000 voters were deleted as they were found absent at the given addresses, he said. "The total number of booths where more than 100 names were deleted is 20,368, and the number of booths where more than 200 names were deleted is 1,988. There are 7,613 booths where more than 70 per cent of women's names were deleted," Khera claimed.
There are 635 booths where more than 75% of the deleted names in the migrant category are women, he said, adding that it is very important to verify these figures. There are plenty of cases where a single voter has been given two EPIC numbers, Khera claimed. "We also have their receipts, and now this fact cannot be denied. We hope the data we have provided will be verified by EC, and an investigation conducted into that. There is a need for door-to-door verification again to correct these mistakes," he added.
However, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer denied the charges, saying, "Till date, no BLA authorised by any district president of the Indian National Congress in Bihar has submitted any claim (Form 6) or objection (Form 7) on any name in the draft electoral rolls published on August 1 in the prescribed format so far". On the allegations of duplicate voters in the draft rolls, the CEO's office said in a statement that the current draft rolls published under the SIR are not final.
"They are explicitly intended for public scrutiny, inviting claims and objections from electors, political parties, and all other stakeholders," it said. Any alleged duplication at the draft stage cannot be construed as a "final error" or "illegal inclusion," as the law provides a remedy through the claims/objections period and subsequent verification by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), it said. The figure of 67,826 "dubious duplicates" cited in certain sections of the media is based on data mining and subjective matching of name/relative/age combinations, it said.
"These parameters, without documentary and field verification, cannot conclusively prove duplication. In Bihar, especially rural constituencies, it is common for multiple individuals to share identical names, parental names, and even similar ages. The Supreme Court has recognised such demographic similarities as insufficient proof of duplication without field inquiry," the statement said. If demographically similar entries are found, they are being identified and removed during the claims and objections period, the CEO's office said.
