NEW DELHI: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday said the Election Commission (EC) had uploaded details of 65 lakh voters deleted from Bihar’s draft electoral roll within 56 hours of the Supreme Court’s directive. He urged electors and political parties to file their claims and objections within the remaining 15-day window, stressing that raising issues after September 1 “shall be pointless.”
Defending the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar, Kumar said political parties had been demanding corrections in the electoral roll for nearly two decades. “Acting on this demand, EC decided to take up SIR, starting with Bihar,” he said, adding that timelines for other poll-bound states would be announced later.
Rejecting opposition allegations of “vote theft,” the CEC said the process was transparent, with electors, party representatives and booth-level officers endorsing it through signatures and video testimonials. “It is a matter of concern that endorsements from district presidents and booth agents are either not reaching party leaderships, or are being ignored to spread misinformation,” he remarked.
On the timing of SIR, Kumar clarified that the annual summary revision is linked to January 1, 2025. April 1 was “too early,” while October 1 would have clashed with the Bihar assembly polls due in November.
Responding to concerns about multiple voters being registered at the same address, Kumar explained that due to the absence of proper house numbering and the existence of unauthorised settlements, the EC and booth-level officers often use “notional” addresses with house numbers shown as ‘0’ or ‘01’. Historical electoral rolls from Assam (1966), Rajasthan (1980), and Uttar Pradesh (1985) carry similar notations, he said.
