Bihar SIR: Electors, parties have one month to get names included in rolls, says ECI

New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) Amid Opposition parties’ allegations of irregularities and unfair deletion of voters’ names in Bihar SIR, the ECI said on Thursday that over the next one month, starting August 1, political parties and individual electors can get names included or excluded from electoral rolls.

“Any elector or any recognised political party will get one month from August 1, till September 1, to get names of any eligible voter included, if left out by BLOs/ BLAs, or get names of any voter excluded, if wrongly included by BLOs/BLAs,” said an official Election Commission of India (ECI) statement.

For the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) currently underway in Bihar, the period for filing claims and objections is stipulated until September 1, 2025. The final electoral roll for this revision will be published on September 30, 2025.

On Thursday, the ECI claimed that 99 per cent of electors in Bihar have been covered under the ongoing SIR exercise.

So far, 21.6 lakh deceased electors have been reported, while 31.5 lakh have permanently migrated. Another 7 lakh electors were found to be enrolled in more than one location, and 1 lakh were marked untraceable, the ECI said.

The poll panel also highlighted that the Enumeration Forms of 7 lakh electors have not been returned so far. While 7.21 crore voters have filled EFs.

Earlier, former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, in an exclusive conversation with IANS, said that if ECI continues to ride roughshod over the Opposition's SIR-related concerns, his party as well as the INDIA bloc may even choose to opt out of the electoral race.

"Boycott is an option, but we will think about it. We will consult our alliance partners and the public before taking a final call," Tejashwi told IANS.

Many lawmakers from the Samajwadi Party (SP), Shiv Sena and Congress on Friday supported his outburst against the ECI and slammed the poll panel, accusing it of manipulating the voters' list ahead of elections.

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi accused the ECI of not doing its job and called it a ‘serious issue’.

--IANS

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