New Delhi: The Special Intensive Voter Roll Revision in Bihar is over and the new lists will be published today. The schedule for the election is expected to be announced next week.
Here are the top 10 points in this story:
- The revision exercise - or SIR as it has been termed -- was conducted amid intense scrutiny and repeated requests to shut it down from the Opposition. The exercise was held after a gap of 22 years and the draft electoral rolls were published on August 1. </p>
- The list was then open for "claims and objections" by voters and political parties till September 1. The Commission said it will not allow any eligible citizen to be left out of the list or let in any ineligible person. </p>
- The matter, however, reached the Supreme Court. The petitioners challenged the revision process, saying it could lead to large-scale disenfranchisement of voters. The next hearing of the case is on October 7.</p>
- Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi have said they would not hesitate to scrap the published list if they find any irregularity. The judges have also allowed the inclusion of Aadhaar as an identity document, which was not on the Commission's list of 11 documents that voters can produce. </p>
- Overruling the poll body's reservations about forgery, the judges said instead of "en masse exclusion", there should be "en masse inclusion".</p>
- Multiple Opposition parties have slammed the timing, intent, and process of the SIR exercise. They have alleged that it is aimed at mass disenfranchisement, particularly of poor and minority communities, who might support the Opposition.</p>
- Congress's Rahul Gandhi has also alleged a collusion between the poll body and the BJP to deliver a massive mandate to the party, producing data from several areas. The Opposition has alleged that the Bihar SIR is a version of this. </p>
- The Commission has rubbished the allegations and asked the Congress leader to file an affidavit. </p>
- Undeterred, Gandhi and others including RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, conducted a Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar against what they have called "vote theft". </p>
- The term of the 243-member Bihar Assembly ends on November 22. Sources said the schedule for the election is expected to be announced once the poll body visits Patna and takes stock of poll preparedness on October 4 and 5.</p>
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