EC uploads 2003 Bihar electoral roll, relaxes document burden

The Election Commission (EC) announced on Monday that it has uploaded the 2003 electoral roll of Bihar, which includes 4.96 crore electors, on its website. This move is expected to significantly facilitate the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, as nearly 60 percent of the total electorate will not need to submit any documents.

The poll panel clarified the matter after political furore over its earlier directive of requiring birth proof of voters and their parents during the SIR in the poll-bound state.

Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Congress, have alleged that the EC’s request for documents from voters in Bihar is an attempt to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) through the backdoor. Their concerns stem from the EC’s earlier announcement of a gradual launch of SIR across the country.

A delegation of the TMC is likely to meet EC officials on July 1 to raise objections on the issue. On Monday, the EC stated that those whose names are there in the 2003 voters’ list, have to just verify their details from the rolls and submit the filled-up enumeration form.

It further clarified that as per instructions, anyone whose name is not in the 2003 Bihar electoral roll can still use the extract of the data, rather than providing any other documents for his/her mother or father.

In such cases, no other document would be required for his/her mother or father. Only the relevant extract/details of the 2003 electoral rolls would be sufficient, the EC said further.

Such electors, it added, would have to submit the documents only for themselves, along with the filled-up enumeration form. According to the 2011 census, there were 454 million migrants in India, up from 315 million in 2001. The Migration in India Report 2021 estimated that around 29% of the population consists of migrants, which often surpasses the winning margin in many constituencies.

While the EC has addressed the issue of duplicate Election Photo ID Card (EPIC) numbers, where the same EPIC number was erroneously issued to two different individuals, the problem of individuals enrolling in multiple locations with differing details to obtain more than one EPIC can only be resolved through SIR. — TNS

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