Patna – The Election Commission of India (ECI) has uncovered large-scale irregularities in Bihar’s electoral rolls, with nearly 3,00,000 notices issued to electors after discrepancies were detected during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
According to sources, several foreign nationals — including individuals from Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and Afghanistan — were found holding Indian voter identity cards.
The irregularities surfaced during verification conducted by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).
"A thorough verification will be carried out between August 1 and 30, and names found not eligible will be excluded from the final voter list set to be published on September 30," an ECI source said. Officials added that during house-to-house checks, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) discovered many non-citizens in possession of Aadhaar, domicile certificates, ration cards, and other documents.
Following field inquiries, formal notices were issued. Each identified elector has been directed to appear before authorities within seven days to clarify or rectify their records.
So far, the commission has received 1,95,802 applications for inclusion or deletion from the draft rolls, of which 24,991 have already been addressed. However, the ECI has not yet specified how many pertain to new entries versus removals.
Among political parties, the CPI(ML) has filed 79 petitions, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has filed three. No objections have been raised yet by the BJP, Congress, or other recognised parties, though three days remain in the claims and objections period.
The draft rolls were published on August 1, with the SIR exercise having started on June 24. The ECI stated that documents of 99.11% of Bihar’s 7.24 crore electors have already been verified, with 98.2% submitting documents between June 24 and August 24.
The Supreme Court has directed the poll body to accept Aadhaar or any of 11 other valid documents for voter registration. The commission, in turn, has urged the court to place confidence in its verification process.