Voter List Revision Sparks National Debate

Observing the intensified political climate surrounding the revision of the state's voter list ahead of the Bihar elections, it appears that the Election Commission did not engage with the country's various political parties before embarking on this significant task. However, this suggests that the political parties desire to have a covert influence in the verification of the voter lists. A scientific analysis of this situation indicates that the political parties aim to meddle in the operations of the Election Commission.

According to the Constitution of India, the Election Commission is an independent and impartial institution which is not a part of the government. By not making the Election Commission and the Judiciary a part of the government, our Constitution makers had tried to ensure that the democracy of India remains completely innocent and untainted. The Election Commission is directly accountable to the voters and it prepares the fertile ground for Indian democracy. The most important thing in this is that the ownership rights of democracy remain in the hands of the common people only.

This is what the Election Commission does because it organizes assembly and Lok Sabha elections every five years and prepares the administrative system of India on a political basis in such a way that whichever political party or group of parties gets majority in the assembly and Lok Sabha, it rules the country. In India, this work is done through elections only, which are conducted by the Election Commission. Its most primary and important work is to prepare the voter lists. Therefore, if there is any problem in this, then the entire democracy will be filled with impurities till the top. If the Election Commission is doing the work of revision of the voter list to remove any kind of impurity, then why should the political parties object to it? But the question is what is the scale of revision. According to the formula given by the Election Commission for Bihar, those whose names were in the voter list of 2003 need not worry, but it will check the credibility of the new voters added after this. Meanwhile, the number of Bihari voters above 18 years of age is believed to be more than three crore.

The guidelines issued by the Election Commission for the verification of these voters did not include voter card, ration card and Aadhaar card. This means that in the elections held in Bihar in the last twenty years, some suspicious voters also cast their votes. It seems that the Commission's intention is to weed out such suspicious voters. But after this matter reached the Supreme Court, the country's top court suggested that these three cards should also be made the basis for voter verification. The total population of India is considered to be more than 140 crores, out of which 97 percent people have Aadhaar cards. In fact, in four districts of the area called Seemanchal of Bihar, the situation was found to be such that the number of Aadhaar cards was more than the total population. This means that there are some fake Aadhaar cards as well. However, this cannot be said about the ration card because it is made on the basis of the family.

But irregularities are found in this as well. The work of making ration cards is done by the state governments while the voter cards are prepared by the Election Commission itself. Therefore, some of the voter cards made in Bihar after 2003 are suspicious. The Election Commission is now accepting that the names of some Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Myanmarese people are also in the voter lists in Bihar. This is a very serious matter because according to the Constitution, the government has given the right to vote only to the legitimate citizens of India. The right to vote is not a part of the fundamental rights of the citizens, rather it is the goal of making democracy in India people-oriented. This was promised to the people of India by the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle and on the basis of equality, the right to vote was given to adult men and women of every caste and religion of India.

After independence, this right to vote on equality was made the policy of the government. Our democracy is based on this policy. Now the Election Commission is saying that it will do the work of revision of voter list on the lines of Bihar in the entire country. In this regard, it has also issued necessary guidelines to the Election Commissioners of various states. On this, the opposition parties of India are in a strong protest mode and are saying that why is the Election Commission showing so much haste in the revision of voter lists at the national level when the whole matter is under consideration of the Supreme Court. The opposition parties argue that the next hearing of the revision case of Bihar is to be held on 28 July and it is possible that the hearing may go on further, so the Election Commission should have waited for the court's decision.

But on the contrary, it is thinking of getting this exercise done in the whole country. Elections are to be held in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu etc. in the next year 2026. The Election Commission has fixed the date of 1 January 2026 to prepare the voter list afresh at the national level. That is, from this date the Election Commission will start the work of verification of voters in all the states of the country (except Bihar). The opposition parties are saying that this work should be done only after the decision of the Supreme Court. If seen carefully, the Election Commission can accept this suggestion and can also consult with various political parties in the meantime. There is no harm in this because democracy runs only through dialogue.