New Delhi [India], August 17: India’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday defended the Election Commission of India (ECI) against opposition criticism over the ongoing revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, insisting that the process is transparent and backed by millions of voters in the state.
Addressing a press briefing in New Delhi, Kumar said officials are working “step by step” with all stakeholders to ensure that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar becomes a “complete success.”
“When more than seven crore voters of Bihar are standing with the Election Commission, then neither can any question mark be raised on the credibility of the Election Commission nor on the credibility of the voters,” he said.
Kumar stressed that the doors of the Commission remain open to all political parties and voters. He added that at the ground level, booth-level officers and party representatives are jointly verifying the lists, with many providing signed and video testimonials.
“It is a matter of serious concern that these verified documents and testimonials… are either not reaching state-level or national-level leaders, or an attempt is being made to spread confusion by ignoring the ground reality,” he noted.
According to the Commission, around 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) prepared the draft voter list in Bihar. So far, voters have submitted a total of 28,370 claims and objections to the lists.
Earlier, on August 16, the ECI reminded political parties that the time to raise concerns about errors in voter rolls is during the “claims and objections” period. The Commission said both digital and physical copies of the rolls are shared with recognized parties to allow scrutiny before publication.
“Recently, some political parties and individuals are raising issues about errors in the electoral rolls, including those prepared in the past. The appropriate time to raise any issue… would have been during the claims and objections period,” the Commission said in an official release.
The poll body underlined that timely objections would have enabled district election officers to correct mistakes before the final lists were published.
Bihar, a politically significant state in eastern India with more than 70 million voters, is expected to go to polls in the coming months.