NEW DELHI, Aug. 27 — Under fire from the Congress-led Opposition over alleged voter fraud in Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has framed a set of five questions to gauge public opinion on the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Though not circulated officially, the poll panel has drafted the following questions for voters:
- Should voter rolls be revised and scrutinized extensively?
- Should the names of the deceased be removed from the electoral rolls?
- Should electors be removed if they are registered in another constituency?
- Should voters who have settled in other states be excluded?
- Should foreigners and “outside elements” be denied voting rights?
The initiative comes as the Commission faces sharp criticism from Opposition parties, who accuse it of acting “in connivance” with the ruling BJP to manipulate Bihar’s voter list.
The controversy has reached the Supreme Court, which directed the poll body to ensure that no eligible voter is excluded. Under the SIR drive, thousands of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) worked with Booth Level Agents (BLAs) nominated by political parties to carry out door-to-door verification.
Opposition parties, however, allege that the exercise disproportionately targets poor, Dalit, and migrant voters. “This is nothing but voter theft,” Congress leaders have said publicly.
The issue spilled into Parliament during the Monsoon Session, where Opposition MPs raised cases of alleged irregularities in Bihar’s draft rolls. One widely cited example was that of “124-year-old” Minta Devi, who appeared as a first-time voter in the updated list.
The protests have also played out on the streets. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and several INDIA bloc MPs were detained while marching to the Election Commission’s headquarters in Delhi earlier this month, demanding the rollback of the revision exercise.
The ECI, while defending the SIR process, has maintained that the verification drive is intended to clean voter rolls and ensure accuracy, not exclusion.
