Election Commission tells Bengal govt to suspend 4 officials by 3pm on Aug 11
'No compliance report, indicating specific action taken against the officers, has been received in the Commission so far. The commission has directed that necessary action against the officers shall be taken immediately and a compliance report be furnished to the commission, latest by 3 pm on August 11,' said a letter sent by ECI to the state's chief secretary on Friday.
The directive comes just two days after Banerjee slammed the elections watchdog at a rally in Jhargram district and declared that she won't punish the officers on the directions of the panel.
ECI on Tuesday ordered suspension of four state government officials who were functioning as Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs). The panel also told the chief secretary to lodge FIRs against the four officers and a casual data entry operator. The two EROs are West Bengal Civil Service (executive) officers.
On Wednesday, Banerjee launched a scathing attack against the poll panel while addressing a rally in Jhargram.
'Government officers are being threatened. Yesterday two of my government officers were suspended. The state was directed to lodge FIR against them. Has the election been announced? Under which law are you (ECI) directing us? I won't do this. I won't punish them,' she had said.
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The Hindu
29 minutes ago
- The Hindu
What happens to ‘missing names' on Bihar SIR list?
The story so far: The Election Commission (EC) has completed the first phase of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar by publishing the draft voter list on August 1. However, 65 lakh names have been removed from this list for various reasons, and the fate of lakhs who have been included on the draft list without submitting verification documents is also up in the air. As poll officials scrutinise forms and conduct inquiries on claims and objections in preparation for the publication of the final list on September 30, the Supreme Court is hearing objections to the SIR process filed by Opposition parties and civil society groups, with the next hearing set for August 12. What happened in the first phase of SIR? In the month after the EC launched the Bihar SIR process on June 24, booth-level officers (BLOs) carried out house visits, distributing pre-printed enumeration forms. Voters not included on the 2003 electoral rolls were required to submit documents proving the date and place of birth of themselves and their parents. As it became clear that many voters could not provide any of the EC's 11 approved documents — which did not include more commonly available documents such as Aadhaar, voter ID cards, or ration cards — the EC issued an advertisement on July 6, urging people to submit their forms before the deadline even if they could not provide supporting documents, leaving it to the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to process the forms on the basis of local investigations or other evidence. All those who submitted their forms before the deadline were included on the draft roll published on August 1. Who are the 'missing names' in the draft? The existing electoral rolls just before the SIR process began contained the names of 7.89 crore registered voters. The draft rolls published on August 1, however, only contain 7.24 crore names, indicating a dip of more than 65 lakh. The ECI accounted for these 65 lakh 'missing names' by explaining that 22.34 lakh people on the earlier list were found to be deceased, 36.28 lakh have migrated permanently to another State, or are untraceable, and 7.01 lakh are duplicate voters who have been found registered in multiple locations. Patna saw the highest number of such cases, with 3.95 lakh voters not included on the draft list. On July 13, the EC said a large number of people from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar were found during the house-to-house verification exercise and that they would not be included in the final electoral roll. The Hindu analysed the deleted names by comparing the draft roll with a list published by the EC in January 2025, which shows a drop of 56 lakh names, including 31 lakh fewer women voters and 25 lakh fewer men, which is unusual given that majority of migration outside the State is by men. Analysis indicated that more deletions may have occurred in districts with larger Muslim populations as per 2011 Census. How can names be added or deleted? Claims and objections to the draft roll can be filed throughout August to correct wrongful inclusions or exclusions. One week into the process, the EC has received 7,252 such claims and objections from individuals. Political parties have claimed that their ground workers too have filed similar claims to correct errors in the draft roll but the EC has denied it. In a plea to the Supreme Court, poll watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms said the full list of names removed from the draft rolls, along with specific reasons for removal, has not been provided to all political parties. EROs are to conduct inquiries on claims and dispose of them within seven days of filing. Each ERO is also expected to display the list of claims daily so that objections can be raised by the public. What will happen to those who submitted their forms without documents? The SIR order seems to leave such cases to the discretion of the EROs and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) who will scrutinise the eligibility of electors based on documents submitted and field reports provided by BLOs. 'In case ERO/AERO doubts the eligibility of the proposed elector (due to non-submission of requisite documents or otherwise), he/she will start a suo moto inquiry and issue notice to such proposed elector, as to why his/her name should not be deleted,' the order says. 'Based on field inquiry, documentation or otherwise, ERO/AERO shall decide on inclusion of such proposed electors in the final rolls. In each such case, ERO/AERO shall pass a speaking order,' it adds. No name can be deleted from the draft roll without such a speaking order, the EC said.
Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Uploaded Bihar draft rolls format under lens
The Election Commission of India (ECI) appeared to have altered the format of at least some parts of the draft electoral roll for Bihar available on its website, replacing a machine-readable version with scanned image files. The draft roll version currently on ECI's website consists of scanned images that cannot be searched via text, are about 7 MB each, and appear to have lower resolution.(Representational Image) The change came to light on Saturday, nine days after it was first published on August 1, following the conclusion of the first phase of the controversial special intensive revision in Bihar last month. When the draft rolls were uploaded on August 1, the files were searchable, text-based PDFs of around 1 MB each (of a single booth in an assembly constituency) with an apparently higher resolution. The version currently on ECI's website consists of scanned images that cannot be searched via text, are about 7 MB each, and appear to have lower resolution. The new format of scanned files generally requires optical character recognition (OCR), which is a more tedious and error-prone way of extracting the text from a PDF file. The change affects both the Voter Services Portal — which allows downloads of voter lists across states in batches of 10 — and a dedicated 'Bihar SIR Draft Roll 2025' site on the Bihar CEO website that hosts assembly constituency-wise zip files. Both now contain scanned images in place of the earlier machine-readable format. Asked about the change, ECI officials said, 'As far as we know these were always scanned images and no change has been made.' HT ascertained the change because it was able to extract the summary table from the draft rolls of 59 ACs on August 1 without using OCR. The non-OCR programmes -- run by HT in two different programming languages; R and Python -- did not work for at least two booths from two different ACs out of the 59 on August 9. HT could not perform the check for all ACs because the changed files are also much larger in size, which is usually the case with image files compared to document-based files. According to ECI's Manual on Electoral Rolls (2023), draft rolls are to be made available on the Chief Electoral Officer's website 'in an Image PDF format' but also 'in a text mode' without photographs — instead indicating whether a photograph is available or not. The development comes in the middle of a public dispute between ECI and the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, over alleged manipulation of electoral rolls. Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that there were 100,250 'stolen' votes in the Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bangalore (Central) parliamentary constituency that helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the seat in 2024, accusing ECI of 'colluding' with the ruling party. He also demanded access to electronic voter roll data from the past 10 to 15 years, along with CCTV footage from election offices. Gandhi had said Congress took 6 months to identify such discrepancies as ECI refused to share a machine readable format for the voter roll. His presentation prompted an immediate reaction from ECI, which asked him to send a signed declaration and oath to the effect. ECI officials have since publicly urged Gandhi to either sign the oath or 'apologise' to the nation.
Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Won't remove voters without notice: EC tells Supreme Court on Bihar SIR
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday told the Supreme Court that no eligible voter in Bihar will be removed from the electoral rolls without prior notice, an opportunity to be heard and a reasoned order, stressing that 'strict directions' have been issued to prevent wrongful deletions during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) in the state. The Commission said it was 'taking every possible step' to ensure that no legitimate elector is excluded from the rolls. (HT PHOTO) In an affidavit filed in response to an August 6 directive by a bench led by Justice Surya Kant, the Commission said it was 'taking every possible step' to ensure that no legitimate elector is excluded from the rolls and outlined a ten-point verification and inclusion mechanism involving booth-level visits, political party participation, targeted awareness campaigns and special assistance for vulnerable groups. The affidavit came in reply to allegations by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) that over 65 lakh names had been deleted from Bihar's draft electoral rolls without transparency and without disclosure of whether the deletions related to deceased persons, migrants, or other categories. The petitioners alleged that political parties had not been given full access to the draft lists, and that in many cases Booth Level Officers (BLOs) included or excluded names without proper verification of the 11 documents prescribed by ECI. Rebutting all allegations, the Commission informed the court that the first stage of SIR had been completed and the draft rolls published on August 1 following house-to-house visits by BLOs to collect enumeration forms from existing electors. Lists of electors whose forms had not been received were shared with Booth Level Agents of recognised political parties on July 20 -- well before the draft publication, to allow corrective action. Updated lists were again given to political party representatives later in the process. ECI said 7.24 crore of Bihar's 7.89 crore electors submitted their forms during the drive, with the involvement of over 77,000 BLOs, 2.45 lakh volunteers, and 1.6 lakh party-appointed Booth Level Agents. It highlighted specific measures to avoid exclusions, including SMS campaigns, repeated BLO visits, and provision for any BLA to submit up to 50 forms daily; advertisements in 246 newspapers to reach temporary migrants; urban camps in all 261 urban local bodies; and advance enrolment drives for young voters turning 18 before October 1, 2025. Special arrangements were made to assist senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable voters in obtaining necessary documents, the affidavit said. It added that any issue flagged through the media was promptly addressed by district officials. Printed and digital copies of the draft rolls have been provided to political parties, with online access for the public during the claims and objections period from August 1 to September 1. The Commission underlined that 'no deletion' from the draft rolls will be undertaken without prior notice to the elector specifying the grounds, a chance to respond and furnish documents, and a reasoned order by the competent authority. These safeguards, it said, are backed by a two-tier appeal mechanism under the Representation of the People Act, 1950. On August 6, the top court directed ECI to file a 'comprehensive reply' after ADR claimed the omissions were carried out without clarity or transparency. The court had reminded the Commission that the SIR must promote inclusion, not mass exclusion, and suggested treating Aadhaar and EPIC cards as having a 'presumption of genuineness' to prevent disenfranchisement. The petitions have also questioned whether ECI is empowered to conduct such a revision for verifying citizenship, arguing that this function rests with the Union government, and challenged the restrictive list of 11 documents demanded as proof of citizenship, saying it risks disenfranchising marginalised voters. The matter will be heard next on August 12. SIR has become a major political flashpoint ahead of the Bihar assembly elections scheduled for later this year. Opposition parties in the INDIA bloc have staged protests in Parliament and written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a special discussion on what they call an 'unprecedented' revision so close to state polls. Eight parties, including Congress, RJD, Samajwadi Party, DMK, Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), have warned that the exercise could be replicated nationwide. On Friday, Union home minister Amit Shah, addressing a rally in Bihar's Sitamarhi, launched a sharp attack on Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc, accusing them of opposing the revision because 'names of infiltrators' were being removed from the lists. 'Infiltrators have no right to vote. Names of infiltrators must be removed from the voters' lists. But the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress are opposing SIR in Bihar because the names of infiltrators are being deleted,' Shah said. While the government has accused the Opposition of politicising electoral reforms, the Opposition contends that the SIR's timing, methodology and documentation requirements threaten the fundamental right to vote of genuine electors, particularly among the poor, migrants, and minorities. During an earlier hearing on July 10, a different bench of the apex court had framed three key legal questions for examination: Whether ECI has the authority to undertake a special revision exercise like the SIR; whether the manner in which the SIR is being conducted is legally valid; and whether the timing of the exercise, months ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, is appropriate. The court had at the time noted that the issues 'go to the root of the functioning of a democratic republic' and involve the citizens' fundamental right to vote.
