Controversy over Election Commission’s revision of electoral rolls

THe Election direction has made it mandatory for young and existing voters to defer a self-attested declaration that they ar amerindic citizens, whether by birth or by naturalization, and furnish documentary proof of date and place of birth along with that of their parents, officials said on Wednesday, as a political controversy broke out over the EC’s decision to conduct a special intensive revision of the electoral rolls to weed out illegal immigrants ahead of the Bihar polls.The revision exercise began in Bihar, where polls are due later this year, on Wednesday.“The SIR directives are detailed and would be followed in principle by the booth level officers (BLOs), who will make house to house verification of voters. The exercise has begun from today and will continue till July 26,” said a state election department official.Also Read | Ahead of Bihar polls, EC plans house-to-house survey for electoral rollAs part of the documentation, electors born in India before 01.07.1987 will be asked to submit a pre-filled enumeration form and one document for self (from the list of 11 different documents) establishing date of birth and/or place of birth.Those born between 01.07.1987 and 02.12.2004 will have to provide any one document establishing date of birth and/or place of birth along with any document, for father or mother, to establish their date of birth and/or place of birth.Electors born in India after 02.12.2004 would have to give proof of self to establish date of birth/place of birth, and documents establishing the date of birth and place of birth for parents. If any parent is not India, a copy of his/her passport and visa at the time of birth has to be provided, the officials said.Also Read | Rahul Gandhi targets EC over poll data, Maha CEO says already availableThe accepted documents include any identity card/pension payment order, identity card or document issued in India by government before 01/07/1987, birth certificate issued by the competent authority, passport, matriculation certificates, permanent residence certificate issued by competent state authority and any land or house allotment certificate by government, among others.“All electors in the state who are enlisted in the rolls or those applying to get their names enrolled in the voters’ list would have to fill up the enumeration forms to be provided by the BLOs with documents establishing their date of birth and /or place of birth as well as their parents (depending on the date of birth of electors like before 1987 or after),” said another EC official.Bihar’s main opposition parties — the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI-ML (Liberation) — said that such an exercise just ahead of the polls was unacceptable and illogical.RJD leader Chittaranjan Gagan, who attended the meeting with CEO Bihar on behalf of his party, said the RJD is strongly against such an exercise. “We apprised the CEO that lakhs of families in the state do not have documents as being asked to establish their place of birth or date of birth for inclusion in the electoral rolls. This is a conspiracy to deprive lakhs of electors from exercising their franchise in the state,” said Gagan.CPI-ML (Liberation) national general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the SIR was nothing less than an exercise similar to national register of citizens. “How can such a big exercise be done within a month. This is all illogical and non-feasible. Elections should be conducted in a democratic process with inclusiveness and not by instilling fear among electors,” Bhattacharya said.The Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Tuesday that it will undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar to weed out ineligible names, citing rapid urbanisation, frequent migration and foreign illegal immigrants as some of the motivations for the house-to-house verification exercise.News agency PTI on Wednesday said that the EC plans to conduct a similar review in five other states — Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — where elections are scheduled in 2026.Eventually, the poll authority will begin special intensive revision in the entire country “for the discharge of its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of the electoral rolls”, PTI quoted officials as saying.