Election Commission Faces Backlash Over Voter List Changes

Given the confusion prevailing among the common voters regarding the voter list in Bihar and the way the opposition parties are making the voter list revision an issue, it is the duty of the Election Commission to assure the voters that not a single valid voter will be left out of the voter list and their right to vote will be fully protected. The Election Commission had issued a notice on June 24 saying that the voters whose names were not included in the 2003 voter list will have to submit some necessary documents to get their names added to the voter list. The name of a voter will not be added to the list just by having an Aadhaar card. The Election Commission should also know that during the tenure of the previous Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, a campaign was launched to link the voter list directly with the Aadhaar card. But some opposition parties had objected to this as well.

Actually, the Election Commission is directly accountable to the voters and no government comes in between. The Election Commission discharges its responsibility by taking power directly from the Constitution. It is his duty to register a valid voter. It is also a fact that only a citizen of India can become a voter and in this process not a single Indian citizen should be left out. As far as Aadhar card is concerned, it is clearly written on it that it is only a proof of residence and not of citizenship. That is, Aadhar card identifies a person living in India and not his citizenship. But on the other hand it is also true that Aadhar card has been made mandatory for availing any government service. To remove this anomaly, the Election Commission released a list of 11 such documents which can prove that the voter is actually a citizen of India and is eligible to be included in the list.

These 11 documents are as follows- 1. Pension card or identity card issued by the Central Government or State Government, 2. Any certificate or other paper issued in his name before 1987 by the Government or local body administration or bank, post office or life corporation, 3. Birth certificate issued by any recognized certified institution, 4. Passport, 5. High school certificate mentioning the date of birth, 6. Certificate of being a permanent resident issued by any recognized certified state institution, 7. Certificate issued by the Forest Department for having rights over forests, 8. Certificate of being from backward class or tribal or scheduled class. Caste survey was conducted in Bihar in 2022 in which the total population of Bihar was found to be 13 crore seven thousand.

In this, the population of General Backward Class (OBC) was 27 percent while that of Extremely Backward Class (EBC) was 36 percent, Scheduled Caste 20 percent and only 1.6 percent of tribal class. 9. Name of the voter in the National Citizen Register (this does not apply to Bihar because this register has not been made here). 10. Name in the National Family Register made by the state or local body. This register is usually made by local bodies like Nagar Palika and Gram Panchayat etc., 11. Any land allotment certificate issued by the state government or local body administration. Thus, the Election Commission has made it mandatory to submit any one of these 11 documents to become a voter. There is a huge uproar in Bihar regarding this and an atmosphere of confusion has spread among the general public.

Opposition parties are also calling for a Bihar bandh on July 9 against this decision of the Election Commission. This is creating the danger that the general public and the Election Commission in the state have come face to face. This situation cannot be called right in any way because the Election Commission is the custodian of the voter list on the basis of which more and more voters are motivated to participate in the voting. But if voters start feeling that the Election Commission is depriving them of becoming voters, then these conditions cannot be called good for democracy, but meanwhile the Election Commissioner of Bihar has issued an advertisement in a newspaper saying that voters can get themselves registered even without a single document, while on the other hand the Chief Election Commissioner has said that no changes have been made in the conditions for inclusion of names in the voter list and the guidelines of 24 June 2025 will remain valid.

This has further complicated the situation. The Election Commission has said that it will release the new revised voter list on September 30 and before that, by September 1, voters can submit any one of the 11 documents and fill their form and give it to the local registrar by July 25. After the Maharashtra assembly elections, the opposition party of the country, Congress, had accused India of having fake voters and said that the names of lakhs of new voters were added to the voter list fraudulently. The Election Commission seems to have taken this step in response to that, but the haste with which this work has been done is raising questions on the authenticity of this process. Therefore, the Election Commission should not compromise on its credibility in this context. Because next year assembly elections are also to be held in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. By the way, this entire matter has also reached the Supreme Court, which needs to be monitored closely.