CEC says rolls ‘purified’ but stays mum on ‘infiltrators’

PATNA: Claiming that the special intensive revision (SIR) carried out after 22 years in the poll-bound Bihar has “purified” the electoral rolls, the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday announced that 17 new initiatives launched for the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar would later be replicated across the country. The commission also dismissed opposition charges about the authenticity of the SIR and described it as a “big success”.Addressing a press conference after completing a two-day visit to Bihar to review poll preparedness, chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said the SIR was aimed at ensuring that no eligible elector was left out and no ineligible person was included. “We launched 17 new initiatives for Bihar and many of them were successfully implemented. The remaining ones will be implemented during the conduct of assembly elections and counting of votes,” Kumar said, adding, “Bihar ab pure desh ko rah dikhane ja raha hai (Bihar is now going to show the way to the entire country).”He said the electoral rolls in Bihar were “purified” after 22 years. “Something was written about the SIR process on social media, but it is also a fact that 7.42 crore electors from Bihar happily welcomed it and joined the exercise with much enthusiasm,” the CEC said. Describing the SIR as mandatory, he said the EC was required by law to complete this exercise before every election.Kumar, who was accompanied by election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, said the commission would announce the dates for the assembly elections “very soon” and that polling for the 243-member Bihar assembly would be completed before Nov 22, when the current term of the house ends. “We listened to the views of various political parties over phase-wise voting in Bihar during our stay in the state capital and the EC will take a decision over the issue very soon,” he said. Urging voters to celebrate the festival of democracy with the same enthusiasm as they celebrate Chhath, Kumar began his address with a few lines in local dialects Maithili and Bhojpuri and acknowledged that most parties had sought elections immediately after the festival.Detailing the SIR exercise, he said the names of 65 lakh voters were struck off before publication of the draft roll in Aug while another 3.66 lakh names were deleted during the monthlong period of claims and objections that followed. “Those whose names have been removed were found ineligible as they were either not citizens of the country, or were dead, or had migrated elsewhere, or had their names registered at more than one place,” he said. He, however, did not provide a break-up of deletions under these categories. Allegations had surfaced that many people were wrongly declared “dead”, while the presence of “foreign nationals” in the voter list was disputed by parties opposed to the ruling BJP. Kumar said those who felt their names were wrongfully deleted could still appeal before the district election office concerned.Listing the 17 new initiatives being implemented in Bihar, the CEC said these included 100% webcasting at all polling booths, a cap of 1,200 voters per booth to prevent overcrowding, and a new standard operating procedure to ensure that EPIC cards are delivered within 15 days of registration. He said a mobile deposit facility would be provided outside polling booths for voters to leave their phones before entering, and mandatory verification of VVPAT slips would be done in case of complaints about mismatches with EVM data. Other measures include printing larger serial numbers on ballot papers, colour photographs of candidates on EVMs, counting postal ballots before the final two rounds of EVM counting and the introduction of digital index cards carrying voter statistics for each constituency.“The SIR was a massive and meticulous exercise and we must thank all 243 electoral registration officers and over 90,000 booth level officers who completed it in time,” Kumar said, adding that the EC would replicate these innovations across India in the coming years. He urged political parties to appoint polling and counting agents at all booths to ensure transparency.On the inclusion of Aadhaar in the documents for the SIR, Kumar clarified that Aadhaar would remain proof of identity, not citizenship. “Aadhaar cannot be considered proof of date of birth, proof of residence, or proof of citizenship,” he said, adding that this position had been upheld by the Supreme Court.The CEC, however, declined to disclose how many “foreign infiltrators” had been identified during the SIR process, a phrase often used by the ruling alliance in its campaign narrative. He also chose not to respond to questions on whether the EC felt “wounded” by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “atom bomb” remark or his talk of an impending “hydrogen bomb”.