Election Commission's Voter List Revision in Bihar Faces Opposition

The Election Commission of India has a unique identity and reputation all over the world. All the democratic countries of the world believe that the exercise of voting done by the Election Commission every five years within the nation of India and in its various states to keep the democracy of India moving is the biggest democratic process of the world. In this context, the right of one vote given to every adult citizen in the Constitution that the people of India implemented on 26 January 1950 is the biggest democratic right, using which we choose the government of our choice. In this regard, whatever work the Election Commission does within India is monitored by the whole world. Along with this, the Election Commission does its work only by taking power from the Constitution.

The Indian Constitution gives independent and autonomous status to the Election Commission so that it can keep the party political system of India clean and transparent. The main work of the Election Commission is to conduct all elections with complete impartiality and independence. When it conducts elections for any assembly or Lok Sabha, it does not care which political party is in power and which is in opposition. In its eyes, the political party in power and any party in opposition are equal. Our constitution makers gave the Election Commission the independent power so that it can carry out its work of conducting elections with complete impartiality. The Election Commission does this work while being directly accountable to the common voter. The government does not come between it and the voter. It is its responsibility to ensure that every person can participate in the elections. It makes arrangements for voters to cast their votes even in remote areas. But the truth behind the uproar that has been created in the entire country regarding the role of the Election Commission in Bihar is that the Election Commission is taking action to check the credibility of every voter. But in this process, it should not go away from the voters because the work of revision of the voter list of the voters of the state which it has started in Bihar is being targeted by the opposition parties. The main allegation of these political parties is that under the pretext of revising the voter list, the Commission is checking their citizenship.

In Bihar, the Election Commission has kept the 2003 voter list above suspicion but it is demanding that voters who were registered after this submit proof of their identity. The Commission has issued a list of 11 such documents, any one of which will be mandatory to submit. But neither Aadhaar card nor ration card or voter identity card has been included in these identity forms. The 11 forms include certificates ranging from permanent residence to government pension and certificate of scheduled caste or tribe. Apart from this, there are nine other certificates which prove a person's citizenship. If looked at carefully, there seems to be some harm in this because our Constitution gives the right to vote only to Indian citizens. But the catch in this is that the Election Commission does not have the job of checking citizenship. This work is done by the Home Ministry of the Government of India. Its job is to motivate every valid voter to vote. But on the other hand, only Indians have the right to elect the government of their choice every five years by exercising their right to vote. It is also the job of the Election Commission to motivate people to vote in maximum numbers.

In this regard, before every election, it sends a message to the voters through various means of propaganda that they should go and vote for their favorite candidate in large numbers so that India's democracy can be strengthened. Seen from this point of view, it is also the job of the Election Commission to nourish India's democracy. But in the context of voter list revision in Bihar, this matter also reached the Supreme Court of the country. Petitions in this regard were filed in the court by the opposition parties. The Supreme Court of the country rejected the opposition's demand that the revision of the voter list in Bihar be postponed, and made it clear that the Election Commission is a constitutional institution. Therefore, it is not appropriate to interfere in its work, but it definitely said that it would be better if the Election Commission includes ration card and Aadhaar card in the 11 identity forms. Actually, the Election Commission usually gets the work of voter list revision done before every Lok Sabha election. So far, this work has been done 14 times since the first elections of 1952. The purpose of revision of voter list is that the name of any valid voter should not remain out of this list. Also, if any voter is fake, then his name should be removed from the list.

After independence, our population has increased from 33 crores to more than 140 crores. In the elections of the year 2024, the total number of voters in the country was around 97 crores, out of which about 67 crore adult voters exercised their vote. Conducting such a huge process in a peaceful manner is not an easy task. Obviously, after the implementation of the code of conduct at the time of elections, the reins of administration come into the hands of the Election Commission and it conducts the elections by taking lakhs of employees from various government departments. Just imagine that in the last Lok Sabha elections, a total of 12 lakh polling stations were set up across the country in which 55 lakh EVM machines were used. 15 lakh employees were deployed at these polling stations and the Lok Sabha elections were conducted in several phases. The Constitution of India says that every Indian has the right to vote, so the Election Commission registers voters from remote hilly areas to far-flung seashores and also provides them the facility to cast their vote during elections. For example, in a Shiva temple far away in the Gir forests of Gujarat, only the priest had a vote till 2019. To get his one vote, the Election Commission sent its entire team to that forest and got him to cast his vote. Similarly, to reach remote villages of Himachal and Jammu-Kashmir or Garhwal region, the Commission sends its team to the villages on mules, elephants or any other vehicle and gets the valid voters to vote for their preferred candidate. The basic mantra of the Election Commission is that not even a single valid voter should be left out. Therefore, the opposition parties in Bihar who are raising questions on the revision of the voter list should also keep these facts in mind and the Election Commission should ensure that its action is inclusive and not alienating the voters. But the truth of Bihar is that the number of Aadhar cards in the four Muslim-majority districts of Seemanchal is almost 120 percent of the total population. Therefore, if the voter list is prepared on the basis of Aadhar cards only in these districts, then it may also contain the names of fake voters. It is also the responsibility of the Election Commission to remove this discrepancy.