Bihar voter list revision: Attempt being made to spread confusion, claims EC

A deliberate attempt was being made to spread confusion by ignoring the ground reality of the special intensive revision of Bihar’s voter roll, the Election Commission claimed on Sunday.

At a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar questioned why verified documents and testimonials from political parties’ district heads and booth-level agents in relation to the exercise were not reaching their state or national leaders.

The draft voter roll published on August 1 showed that 65.6 lakh names had been removed from the list. Of these, 22 lakh were due to deaths, 36 lakh were of people who had permanently shifted or were untraceable and seven lakh were duplicate entries, the poll panel had said at the time.

“The doors of the Election Commission are always open for everyone equally,” Kumar said on Sunday. “At the ground level, all the voters, all the political parties and all the booth-level officers are working together in a transparent manner, verifying, signing and also giving video testimonials.”

Kumar claimed that some persons were misleading the public by asking why the exercise was being carried out in a hurry.

“Should the voter list be rectified before or after the elections?” he asked. “The Election Commission is not saying this; the Representation of the People Act says that you have to rectify the...

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