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Refuting all the claims, the Chief Electoral Officer said that the applications submitted by the presidents of the Pradesh Congress Committees are not in the prescribed format.
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera (PTI image)
Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer on Sunday responded to Congress’s claims about rejecting 89 lakh irregularity complaints flagged by the party’s Booth Level Agents (BLAs) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. In an official statement, the Chief Electoral Officer clarified that the party’s complaints were not submitted in the correct legal format.
Earlier in the day, Khera alleged irregularities cast a doubt on the intention of the EC, and demanded that it conduct the entire process again.
“The EC keeps getting news planted through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the SIR to the EC,” said Khera in a press conference on Sunday.
“When our BLAs went to file complaints, their complaints were turned down by the EC. The EC categorically told our BLAs that complaints could be accepted by individuals only, not by political parties,” he added, demanding that the entire SIR exercise be re-conducted.
According to the Senior Congress leader, the names of 65 lakh voters of Bihar were deleted from the electoral rolls by the EC from 90,540 booths in the state.
Of these totals, 25 lakh voters were deleted due to migration, and the names of 22 lakh people were removed as they are not alive. Names of 9,70,000 voters were deleted as they were found absent at the given addresses, he claimed.
“The total number of booths where more than 100 names were deleted is 20,368, and the number of booths where more than 200 names were deleted is 1,988. There are 7,613 booths where more than 70 per cent of women’s names were deleted,” said Khera.
At the same time, the Chief Electoral Officer denied all the claims and said, “To date, no BLA authorised by any district president of the Indian National Congress in Bihar has submitted any claim (Form 6) or objection (Form 7) on any name in the draft electoral rolls published on August 1 in the prescribed format so far”.
The department further cited a recent High Court ruling supporting this process, ensuring that no voter will be removed from the list arbitrarily or without legal verification.
“At present, the applications submitted by the presidents of the Pradesh Congress Committees are not in the prescribed format; hence, the Chief Electoral Officer has forwarded these applications to the concerned Electoral Registration Officers only for their information,” said the Chief Electoral Officer.
“In this context, it is inappropriate that before initiating the deletion process for around 89 lakh voters, which is a significantly large number, the Electoral Registration Officer, under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, will take an appropriate decision regarding deletion only after due verification and using their discretion,” added the official statement.
Anushka Vats is a Sub-Editor at News18.com with a passion for storytelling and a curiosity that extends beyond the newsroom. She covers both national and international news. For more stories, you can follow her…Read More
Anushka Vats is a Sub-Editor at News18.com with a passion for storytelling and a curiosity that extends beyond the newsroom. She covers both national and international news. For more stories, you can follow her… Read More
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