New Delhi [India], June 22 : Election Commission of India (ECI) is contemplating an intensive house-to-house verification during the upcoming electoral roll revision before Bihar Assembly Polls in order to make the Electoral Rolls completely robust and free of any kind of errors, according to ECI sources.
Such intensive and rigorous revision of the electoral rolls has been done in the past as well. The last such exercise was undertaken in the year 2004, ECI sources said.
Over the past, persistent concerns have often been raised by various civil society organisations, political parties and agencies regarding the inclusion or deletion of names of the electors in the Electoral Rolls.
Sanguine about its responsibility, the Election Commission of India has repeatedly emphasised that it is committed to ensuring that only genuine and eligible citizens are enrolled in the electoral rolls. Regular exercise of revision of the Electoral Rolls is undertaken annually throughout the country by the ECI and also before the holding of Elections/Bye-polls by the ECI.
Constitutional and legal frameworks are also quite clear and robust in this regard. The provisions regarding eligibility to be registered as a voter and disqualifications for registration in an electoral roll are clearly laid down in Article 326 of the Constitution of India and Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 respectively.
The need for constant updation of the electoral rolls arises due to various reasons, such as migration/shifting of electors.
"The country continuously witnesses inter-state, intra-state, inter-district and intra-district migration due to reasons such as marriage, job opportunities, education, family requirements etc. For instance, during the year 2024 as per forms received by the ECI, 46.26 lakh persons shifted their residence, 2.32 crore applied for corrections and 33.16 lakh requested for replacement. Thus, in a single year, nearly 3.15 crore changes were required to be made across the country," ECI sources said.
Deletion of names of dead electors: Generally, number of deletions of dead voters is much lesser than the registered deaths as the families do not approach the ECI for deletion of names of their kin.
The other reason for constant updating is addition of names of young electors attaining the age of 18 years and corrections in the elector details such as names/photographs/address.
Rationalisation of Polling stations for various reasons, especially in view of the new limit set by the ECI of 1200 electors per polling station from the earlier 1500 and the commitment of the ECI to ensure that no elector has to travel for more than 2 kilometers to cast their vote and identification and subsequent deletion names of foreign illegal immigrants in the electoral rolls are the other reason to constantly update the electoral rolls.
The entire process of updation of the electoral rolls is conducted as per law/rules/instructions of the ECI, and sufficient opportunity is provided to the political parties to file claims, objections and appeals before the final electoral is published. However, in spite of following a detailed protocol, insinuations and allegations are often made against the ECI for arbitrarily inflating the electoral roll, even though, the exercise is conducted with complete transparency and under constant scrutiny of the political parties.