Why EC move to create new Bihar voter list has rung the ‘NRC’ alarm bell

The Election Commission is carrying out a “special intensive revision” of Bihar’s electoral roll in the run-up to the state’s Assembly elections later this year.

In effect, the entire voter list for the state will be discarded to be replaced by a new one. Moreover, every voter in the state will have to prove that they are an Indian citizen to be able to vote.

The ECI believes that the state needs a new list because of the inclusion of names of “foreign illegal immigrants” and dead voters as well as movement of voters because of “rapid urbanisation” and “frequent migration”.

An ECI official, while responding to Scroll’s question on whether the poll body had data or any evidence for the presence of foreign illegal immigrants on the voter list, claimed that “regular inputs keep coming regarding presence of such persons” on the list. However, the official did not share any data or evidence of the same.

By the ECI’s own estimate, a staggering 2.93 crore voters in Bihar will have to prove their citizenship through additional documents.

Opposition leaders have called the exercise an attempt to covertly implement the National Register of Citizens through the backdoor, which could potentially disenfranchise thousands of voters.

The National Register of Citizens was updated in Assam in...

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