Election Commission holding regular dialogue with parties: CEC on criticism from opposition
Replying to queries from reporters in Firozabad, where he came to attend a private programme, Mr. Kumar said that after voters, political parties are the next important stakeholders for the EC.
He was asked about the recent criticism from opposition parties, including their allegations that their concerns related to poll-bound Bihar are being overlooked by the EC.
"The Election Commission keeps having a regular dialogue with various political parties. In the last four months, all-party meetings were organised in every assembly constituency, in every district and also with every State chief electoral officer.
"In all, 5000 such meetings were held in which 28,000 people, including leaders of political parties, participated." The CEC said that not only this, the Election Commission itself has been meeting all national and State parties.
"Five national parties and four state parties have met. If there is any issue, then all-party delegations also come, and the EC meets them," he said.
The Chief Election Commissioner also said that in the electoral process, the voters are the most important, but after them, "our political parties are the most important stakeholders".
Referring to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, where Assembly elections are due later this year, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said that whoever is in the voter list of 01.01.2003 in Bihar will be considered eligible from the primary point of view under Article 326 of the Constitution.
In other words, people whose names are in that list will not be required to submit any supporting documents, and when voter IDs are to be made for their children, they too will not be required to give documents for their parents.
The Election Commission has said it will soon upload the 2003 Bihar electoral roll on its website to facilitate the nearly 4.96 crore voters whose names figure on it to extract the relevant portion to be attached with the enumeration form for the special intensive revision of the voters' list.
According to the instructions issued by the poll authority to its Bihar poll machinery, the 4.96 crore voters — 60% of the total electors — who were listed in the 2003 special intensive revision need not submit any supporting document to establish their date or place or birth except the relevant portion of the electoral roll brought out after the revision.
The other three crore — nearly 40% — will have to provide one of the 11 listed documents to establish their place or date of birth.
"The basic exercise is to identify each and every individual of the remaining three crore voters before their names are included in the list," a functionary explained.
Special intensive revision will ensure that no eligible elector is left out of the electoral rolls and no ineligible one is part of it, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had earlier told PTI.
Bihar, as of now, has more than 7.89 crore voters spread across 243 assembly seats. Polls in the state are due later this year.
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Bihar electoral rolls revision: No change in instructions on procedure, clarifies EC
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Why are Bihar's electoral rolls being revised?
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Section 20 of the RP Act provides the meaning of the term 'ordinarily resident'. It specifies that a person shall not be deemed to be 'ordinarily resident' in a constituency simply because he/she owns or possesses a dwelling house in such constituency. However, at the same time, a person 'temporarily absent' from his/her place of residence shall continue to be 'ordinarily resident' therein. Why has an SIR been initiated? Section 21 of the RP Act deals with the preparation and revision of electoral rolls. It authorises the EC to carry out a special revision of the electoral roll at any time for reasons to be recorded. The Election Commission has noted that there have been large scale additions and deletions to the electoral rolls over the last 20 years due to rapid urbanisation and migration. This has increased the possibility of duplicate entries in the roll. The Commission is constitutionally obligated to ensure that only citizens are enrolled in the electoral rolls. Accordingly, the EC has decided to carry out an SIR for the entire country, starting with Bihar. The last such SIR was carried out for Bihar in the year 2003. Since the Bihar Assembly elections are due in November, the EC has presently laid down the guidelines for an SIR of the Bihar electoral roll with the qualifying date as July 1, 2025. During the last SIR, enumerators were sent for house-to-house verification with a copy of the details of the existing voters. However, in the present SIR, every elector will have to submit an enumeration form to their respective Booth Level Officers (BLOs). For electors registered in the electoral roll as of January 2003 (on the basis of the last SIR), no further documents are required to be submitted except the extract of the 2003 electoral roll. However, electors registered after January 2003, have to additionally submit documents for establishing the date and place of birth for themselves and their parent(s) as required. 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Migrants who have moved away for long periods of time on account of education or employment would be included in the electoral roll of the constituency of their current residence as per provisions of the RP Act and the RER. However, counter arguments posit that the RP Act provides that 'persons temporarily absent' do not cease to be 'ordinarily resident'. Many migrant workers shift to other places within the State or outside the State but return at regular intervals to their place of birth/ upbringing. The families and properties of such migrants may continue in the same location where they would want to retain their right to vote. The EC, as recently as January 2023, had indicated its intention of providing a remote voting facility for such migrant workers subject to technical feasibility and acceptance by all stakeholders. What can be the way forward? 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After considering the ground realities during the first phase of the enumeration, the EC should adequately tailor the process, during the claims and objections phase, to ensure that no eligible citizen is excluded due to their inability to produce any document from the list of valid documents. Finally, migrant workers should not be removed from the rolls as that can result in significant deletions. Many such migrants have exercised their right to vote in the place of their birth/upbringing as per their choice and should continue to do so. It is pertinent to note that as per the amendment of the RP Act in 2010, non-resident Indians who have shifted out of India, even for the long term on account of employment, education or otherwise, are entitled to register and vote in the constituency in which their address as per passport is located. The issue of duplicate voter IDs for the same person in different constituencies should be addressed through Aadhaar seeding for which the EC had begun its consultative process in March 2025. Rangarajan. R is a former IAS officer and author of 'Courseware on Polity Simplified'. He currently trains at Officers IAS Academy. Views expressed are personal.
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an hour ago
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91 per cent of TN cops think ‘custodial torture' is sometimes necessary: Report
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