Bihar SIR: No objections filed by parties, says EC; on the ground, political workers say they raised red flags | Political Pulse News

The Indian Express spoke to BLAs across political parties – from the BJP’s agents in Darbhanga, who are confident that the “mool niwasi” won’t be left out; to Ara in Bhojpur, where BLAs of the CPI- (ML-Liberation) say they have flagged nine cases of voters being inaccurately declared dead on the draft rolls; to a booth in Aurangabad, where the BLA says he is going door-to-door alerting the 122 voters in his booth whose names have been struck off the EC list.

While EC rules say objections to the draft roll have to be submitted in the prescribed format – Form 6 for additions, Form 7 for deletions – along with a declaration, BLAs say that while they have brought the alleged inaccuracies to the notice of the authorities, it’s for the EC to take action.

Officials told The Indian Express that BLAs don’t usually submit claims and objections in the format prescribed since they are required to present the evidence on oath.

This is the same rule that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar cited on Sunday when asking Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to give an affidavit for his allegations of voter fraud in Karnataka.

Under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, making a false declaration is an offence punishable by a jail term/fine.

At a booth in Darbhanga’s Bahadurpur Assembly constituency, BLA Krishna Bhagwan Jha of the BJP says he is yet to see the draft electoral roll published on August 1, but is not worried about genuine voters being left out of the rolls.

“Jo yahan ke mool niwasi hai, unke paas koi toh proof hoga (The original residents will have some proof),” he says, confidently.

According to EC data, of the 1.60 lakh BLAs, the BJP, which is part of the ruling coalition, has the highest number (53,338), but even that does not cover all the 90,712 booths in the state.

In another booth, in Darbhanga Assembly seat, BLA Lakshman Kumar of the BJP says he has submitted a letter to the District Magistrate, Kaushal Kumar, with names of 665 electors who allegedly have more than one Voter ID in the same constituency. Nearly all the electors on Lakshman’s list are from the minority community.

“We have found that these 665 people have two, three and even four EPICs in some cases. Some are registered in the same booth multiple times, others are in different booths in the Vidhan Sabha,” he says.

Lakshman says that when he submitted the complaint, he was asked to attach an affidavit too. “I gave the complaint on my letterhead, as a BLA of the world’s largest political party. I don’t think an affidavit is required. We have identified these duplicates; now it is for the authorities to investigate and delete the names they find,” he says.

The DM did not respond to The Indian Express’s request for a comment. However, officials said, the complaint was being inquired into.

Rajesh Choudhary, a BJP BLA in Hayaghat Assembly constituency, insists the SIR process has been smooth. “There are some people whose names were not there or their documents were not available. We have been contacting them over the phone and asking them to send the documents over WhatsApp if they are not here. We then submit the forms to the BLO,” he says.

Sapna Bharti, a BJP BLA in Darbhanga Assembly constituency, too, expresses confidence. “There are many people whose names are left out, but we are making sure that they all complete the formalities in the next two-three days. We have helped them to get their caste or residence certificates made,” she says.

With the Opposition joining forces against the SIR, BLAs of the RJD, Congress and the Left are going all out to bring the alleged irregularities to light.

At Ara town, the district headquarters of Bhojpur, BLAs and functionaries of the CPI (ML-Liberation) say they have identified nine cases of voters being ‘inaccurately’ declared dead on the draft rolls. Among them is Mintu Paswan, one of seven such cases that Rahul Gandhi recently highlighted.

The CPI (ML-Liberation) has a strong presence in Bhojpur, with the party’s Sudama Prasad defeating former Union minister and senior BJP leader RK Singh from Ara Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 polls. The party had also won the adjoining Karakat Lok Sabha seat.

At a booth in Dharhara in Ara, BLA Ritesh Sunilam of the CPI (ML-Liberation) says he has identified three voters, including Madan Prasad, a daily wager, who were “inaccurately” declared dead and deleted from the draft roll.

“I am completely worthless now. At least I could vote until now; now I can’t even do that,” says Prasad, a member of the Extremely Backward Class who has been out of work for some years.

Sunilam tries to cheer him up. He asks for Prasad’s Aadhaar card and one of the 11 EC-mandated documents and says he will help him apply as a fresh voter with Form 6. “Baad mein (later),” says Prasad, brushing off the BLA.

Sunilam says all the three voters in his booth who have been declared dead on the EC draft roll had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Citing an instance of the same voter with three different names and EPIC numbers — Sonu Kumar Tiwari, Vinay CPI (ML-Liberation’s) Kumar Tiwari and Vikas Kumar Tiwari, son of Krishnanamd Tiwari from Kudaria village, Booth Number-210) — Sanjay Kumar, state committee member of the party, says, “When we visited Kudaria, we learnt that that the person’s real name is Vinay Tiwari. We have complained to the BLO concerned.”

On August 16, the Left party, one of the key allies of the RJD-led Opposition Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, called a district-level meeting of its functionaries to highlight discrepancies in the SIR and find ways to redress it by bringing the matter to the attention of the EC’s Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

The party’s BLAs in Ara have raised many such objections – alleged duplication of voters at booths in the Tarari and Nokha Assembly segments; about 50 people at Khopira in the Ara Assembly segment listed as “permanently shifted”, when they had only migrated for work; and a case in Dehri Tola, Jagdishpur Assembly segment, where 76 people bearing the surname Choudhary (EBCs) got allegedly listed as Choubey (an upper-caste surname) in the draft roll.

Functionaries of the CPI (ML-Liberation) say they have brought these ‘irregularities’ to the attention of the BLOs concerned.

In another part of the state, at Aurangabad’s Ward number 13, Sarvind Kumar, a BLA of the Congress, has a list of 122 voters whose names have been deleted from the voter list.

“People have been coming to my house to find out if their names have been struck off. Since it was getting crowded, I told them to go back home and now I am going to each of their homes, informing them that they are not on the draft rolls. That is the first step,” says Kumar.

The ward has a sizeable population of Dalits and Muslims, besides upper-caste voters too.

At the home of Dhananjariya Devi (45) and Ramesh Ram (50) – a Dalit couple who work as daily wagers – Kumar announces: “Your name has been deleted from the voter list.”

While Devi’s name has been deleted citing that she wasn’t “present”, her husband is shown on the draft rolls as having “moved out of the state permanently”.

Kumar tells the couple they will have to get their caste certificates made and that he would discuss the matter with Congress MLA Anand Shankar Singh. “Don’t worry. I will go with you to get the caste certificate made,” he says, before heading to another house.