BIHAR CEO records reveal unexplained deletions

Official records from the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) revealed that out of 366,742 names deleted from the draft electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), 9,968 were removed without citing death, relocation, or duplication as the reason.

- Vrinda Tulsian

Among the rest, 62,441 were marked as deceased, 212,999 as having shifted residence, and 81,334 as repeated entries, people familiar with the matter said.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on September 30 published the final electoral list for Bihar comprising 74.2 million voters, roughly 4.7 million names lighter than at the beginning of the controversial exercise that ended on the day. The draft roll published on August 1 after the first phase of the SIR was completed, comprised 72.4 million people, dropping 6.56 million names from the rolls published on June 24. In the two-month-long verification of documents and submission of objections process, another 366,000 names were excised while 2.15 million names were added, the ECI statement had then said.

As per the records, the unexplained deletions are particularly concentrated in districts such as Supaul (4,300), Kishanganj (3,848), West Champaran (251) and Sitamarhi (200).