65 lakh voters of Bihar!

The Election Commission has declared that following the initial revision of Bihar's voter list, approximately 6.5 million voters' names might be removed. Opposition parties, both nationally and within the state, are vehemently protesting the voter list revision from Parliament to public demonstrations. However, the Election Commission asserts its authority to periodically verify the voter list to ensure that fraudulent voters do not participate in elections. This process is being conducted in Bihar for the first time in 22 years, with the last revision occurring in 2003. The Commission is justified in stating that only legitimate Indian citizens should be included in the voter list, as the Constitution grants voting rights exclusively to Indian citizens.

Everyone knows that there is a problem of Bangladeshis entering India illegally. This problem has been going on for a long time. Bangladeshis coming to India in search of employment get Aadhaar cards made by hiding their real identity and even get their names added to the voter list. Apart from this, there is no dearth of Biharis who migrate to other states in search of livelihood. A large number of these Biharis become permanent residents of other states due to which their names also get added to the voter list of that state. Hence, there is a problem of duplicate voter cards in India. Apart from this, it is also found that the names of people who have passed away are also registered in the voter list due to which fake voters cast their votes.

Why should there be opposition if the Election Commission is working to eliminate these discrepancies? The opposition parties' main argument is that the Election Commission completed the revision in Bihar in just one month, by July 25, despite there being 7.8 crore voters in the state. Reaching all these voters in such a short time is a challenging task, yet the Election Commission managed to accomplish it, leaving many surprised. The Commission claims it achieved this with the assistance of approximately 78,000 election booth level officers. Additionally, over 150,000 booth level workers from political parties monitored these officers as they helped voters fill out forms. Each voter was given a form to provide personal details. The revision revealed that the revised list has about eight percent fewer valid voters compared to the old list. There are nearly 65 lakh illegal or suspicious voters, including 22 lakh deceased individuals, 7 lakh voters listed in two states, and 35 lakh who have moved to other states but whose current locations are unknown.

This issue is quite prevalent in India, as families often neglect to remove a deceased person's name from the voter list. However, it is also the responsibility of the Election Commission to transparently eliminate the names of questionable individuals from the voter list to prevent any doubts. The Election Commission plans to release the initial revised voter list on August 1. Following this, citizens will have until September 1 to provide evidence to the Election Commission that a removed voter is legitimate, allowing their name to be included in the final revised list set for publication on September 30. Seeing this, it seems that the Election Commission is giving enough time to the suspicious voters to present proof of their legitimacy. The Election Commission says that about 7.23 crore voters submitted their election forms with it. The rest whose forms were not submitted were put in the suspicious category. Out of these, 22 lakh voters are in the list of dead. Only 1.2 lakh voters are such to whom the booth level officers could not reach. Their forms can be submitted within the next one month. Thus, the data of 99.8 percent voters has reached the Election Commission.

This entire exercise also means that there are not 7.8 crore voters in Bihar but only about 7.25 crore voters, which also includes 1.2 lakh voters who did not submit the form. But the opposition parties are alleging that this is a conspiracy of the ruling party BJP, which it is hatching in connivance with the Election Commission. The current Sawan session of Parliament could not run for a whole week on this issue because the opposition parties were demanding that the work of voter revision be stopped and the elections be held according to the same voter list of 2024, from which the Lok Sabha elections were held this year. Their argument is that how can the list which was valid in the Lok Sabha elections be invalid in the assembly elections. Everyone knows that the assembly elections in the state are to be held in the coming month of November.