Patna: CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Friday announced that the opposition would move to the Supreme Court if the Election Commission (EC) failed to address its concerns over certain issues related to the final voter list were not addressed.
CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya alleged that four key problems existed in the final electoral roll, adding that the first and foremost one was that it was still unknown how many of those who were wrongfully deleted from the draft roll had been restored in the final roll. He claimed that the disproportionate deletion of women from the voter rolls was also a matter of concern. The EC should specify the grounds for deleting 3.66 lakh additional voters, he added.
CPI (ML) leader contended that there were 914 women per 1,000 male voters on the electoral roll before the SIR, but it had come down to 892. He claimed that there were several constituencies where the number of voters in the final list was lower than that of the draft roll published on August 1.
Bhattacharya said that the EC directed those who had been wrongfully deleted to use Form 6 to enroll themselves afresh in voter rolls. This form was usually used for first time voters. EC should provide clarity on how many of those added using Form 6 are first time voters, he said.
He also cited reports, revealing that at least 6,000 cases of deletions were due to the people being found “non citizens of India”. “No such figure had emerged after the draft roll was published. “This is a significant number. The EC must give us clear answers on how they arrived at this figure,” he added.
“The opposition will approach the Supreme Court once again if the EC fails to give answers to these questions,” he commented.
The number of electors on the final voter list is 7.42 crore, nearly 6 percent less than 7.89 crore as on June 24 this year, the day the EC announced a three-month SIR in the state. The final voter list was released last Tuesday. In the SIR, as many as 68.6 lakh names were deleted, of which 65 lakh were removed when the draft roll was published on August 1, and another 3.66 lakh during the claims and objections stage — the period when citizens can contest deletions or seek corrections in the draft roll. Alongside, 21.53 lakh new electors were added.
