Patna, 1 October (NEWS IN BIHAR). Congress national spokesperson Abhay Dubey issued a release stating that the last voter list of Bihar was published on Tuesday, in which a total of 7.42 crore voters have been registered. This number is about 6 percent less than 7.89 crore voters recorded on 24 June this year.

The Election Commission had announced to start a three -month special intensive revision in the state. The Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar did not say in the publication of the final list how many foreign nationals were removed from the voter list. Whereas the Prime Minister and Election Commission of the country repeatedly spoke of revision of the list for intruders.

But in the final publication of the voter list, the Election Commission said that there are deaths, permanent migration and duplication due to the name being cut. This has also raised questions on the argument of the Election Commission, in which it also introduced this revision as a citizenship verification campaign.

He said that in the Supreme Court, the Election Commission had argued that it is under the jurisdiction to seek evidence of citizenship and it is appropriate to put a burden on the voter itself. But the final results made it clear that the number of non-citizens or foreigners is zero, which raises the question as to why the SIR’s criterion was made so hard.

68.6 lakh names were removed in this revision. Of these, 65 lakh names were removed in the format list published on August 1 and 3.66 lakh names were taken out during the process of claims and objections. Meanwhile, 21.53 lakh new voters were added. The Commission did not make public the number of male and female voters in the voter list. But in this list it appears that the proportion of women has reduced significantly compared to men.

In the format cut of 65 lakh names, 22 lakh people were marked dead, 36 lakhs were shown permanent migration or absent and 7 lakhs were found registered elsewhere. Due to 2 lakh migration in 3.66 lakh names removed in the final list, due to about 60 thousand deaths and 80 thousand duplications (being named in two places) were removed. Thus, there is not a single foreign national.

He said that the Election Commission said from the Supreme Court to the voters that this process is related to the authentication of the voter’s citizenship. Therefore, it was made mandatory to submit a document to the voters registered after 2003 to prove citizenship. Those born before 1 July 1987 were to give their birth proof. Those who were born between 1 July 1987 to 2 December 2004 were also to give proof of a guardian with him. And people born after 2 December 2004 had to give evidence of themselves and both parents. These categories were decided according to the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Now the question arises whether the Election Commission and BJP-JDU insulted Bihar by questioning the citizenship of all Biharis?

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/ Surabhit Dutt