Risk of vanishing votes in Bihar’s revised roll

THE Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar initiated by the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been in the news ever since it was initiated on June 24.

It is a developing story with fresh developments happening every day by way of press notes issued by the ECI, newspaper advertisements issued by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar and revealing reports in the media — mainstream and social.

This piece is an attempt to look ahead and try to build a scenario about what might or is likely to happen, IF the exercise goes ahead as envisaged by the ECI.

According to a full-page advertisement issued by the Bihar CEO on July 5, voters in Bihar could submit their Enumeration Forms (EFs) by July 25.

On July 6, the ECI issued a press note that said: “The electors can submit their documents any time before July 25, 2025. After publication of draft electoral rolls, if any document is deficient, EROs can obtain such documents, from the electors whose name appears in the draft electoral rolls, during scrutiny in the Claims and Objection period."

The draft electoral roll is to be published on August 1 and the Claims and Objection period ends on September 1. From the press note of July 6, it is not clear if the last date of submission of documents is July 25 or September 1.

Notwithstanding the above, a scenario that is likely to emerge is visualised below.

On July 26 or earlier, the ECI will issue a press note claiming that 99.99 per cent or 7.9 crore documents have been collected. It will not clarify how many are complete or usable and how many are not.

The draft electoral roll will be published on August 1. It is likely that a large number of voters, particularly those who are working in various states as migrants and remote villages in Bihar (anywhere between 20 and 50 per cent) will not be able to check if their names actually appear on the draft electoral roll for a variety of reasons. One major reason for not being able to do so is that they are busy dealing with their bread and shelter issues, and do not have the luxury or wherewithal to check the draft electoral roll by going to cyber cafes.

Therefore, no ‘Claims and Objections’ will be filed either by them or on their behalf.

The final electoral roll will then be published on September 30. For the reasons described above, no objections will be filed against the final electoral roll.

Then will come the polling day. The day before the polling date, all the migrants who have been working in different parts of the country will reach their villages either on their own or using the return rail tickets or chartered buses provided by various political parties.

Imagine a remote village which has 500 voters who have voted in all elections for the last 15 to 20 years, including the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. When all the 500 turn up at the polling booth on the polling day, let us assume that as a result of the process described above, about half of them, around 200-250 of the 500 find that their names are missing from the electoral roll.

What is likely to happen then? Here is a possible scenario.

People finding their names missing from the electoral roll is not impossible. In every election, in every polling booth, some people find their names missing. IF there are a few of them, may be 10 or 15, they feel very unhappy, even angry, but usually they swallow their anger, criticise the ECI or the ‘system’ and go back home feeling frustrated.

However, IF this happens with 200 out of 500 persons in a remote village in Bihar, the situation may turn out to be different. The six to eight ECI officials manning the polling booth and around the same number of police or paramilitary personnel guarding the booth may not be able to contain the anger of 200 persons and the situation may get out of control.

IF this happens in one or two, or even eight or 10 villages, the situation may be controlled or suppressed, as was done at Markarwadi in Maharashtra when the villagers wanted to conduct their own poll to check how the winning candidate in their constituency had got less votes in their village.

A large posse of police arrived in the village the night before and prevented the villagers from conducting their poll.

However, the situation may be different in case this happens in a hundred or more villages.

I would be very relieved and happy, and sincerely hope so, if the above scenario does not come to pass, but the apprehension is that unless the ECI realises the possible consequences of its continuing on its path or the Supreme Court either stays the process or takes some other action to remedy the situation, the country may face a very difficult situation.

There is a saying often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi to the effect that one should be very careful of the man who has nothing to lose.

This may well apply to a large number of persons who migrate out of Bihar in search of livelihood. Whatever the economic and social condition may be, every person in India, including the most deprived, is acutely conscious of his/ her right to vote.

IF a situation comes to pass when a large number of landless migrant workers find themselves deprived of the only right they have, their behaviour can be very unpredictable.

It is hoped that the ECI will realise the possible consequences of its actions in time to prevent any catastrophe.

Jagdeep S Chhokar is founder-member, Association for Democratic Reforms.

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