ECI has 3,000 objections to Bihar SIR exercise directly from electors, alleges CPI(M-L) Liberation

The CPI(M-L) Liberation on 6 August, Wednesday, alleged that the Election Commission is trying to create an impression that everything is fine with the special intensive revision exercise in Bihar and no party is complaining.

In a post on Facebook, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the EC is not providing booth level lists of deletions despite many parties seeking these details.

"The EC is trying to create an impression that everything is fine with the Bihar SIR drive and there are no complaints coming. Nothing could be farther from the truth," he wrote. 

His remarks came as the poll panel said no claims and objections have been received from political parties on the draft electoral roll. 

Bhattacharya, however, countered this claim.

"It is not that objections are not being filed, the EC admits having received some 3,000 objections directly from electors (not through booth level agents or BLAs) which are yet to be addressed," he said. 

He said all deleted electors are being asked to apply afresh for inclusion by filling up Form 6. 

"How does the EC know that the nearly 15,000 Form 6 received so far are all by first-term voters and not those who have been deleted," he questioned. 

Bhattacharya said the political parties have been repeatedly asking the EC to provide them with booth-level lists of deletions, specifying the ground thereof, "but to no avail". 

"The EC insists on supplying only consolidated lists, which makes it inordinately difficult for political parties to crosscheck every deletion. Why is the EC refusing to share booth-level lists of those considered dead or having permanently migrated from Bihar? Especially if the EC is really serious about ensuring that no eligible voter is deleted," he said. 

"And why are lists being shared only in English? Why cannot we have lists with names written in Hindi," he asked. 

The poll panel, in its bulletin, said so far 3,659 claims have been received directly from electors, but no claims have been received from the 1,60,813 BLAs of political parties. In addition, 19,186 forms have been received from new electors on attaining the age of 18 years. 

It also said it is revising the electoral rolls in accordance with the Constitution and the law.