Bihar Assembly Polls: As opposition holds protest march against SIR, EC says no party approached it over draft roll entries

On a day opposition parties held a protest march over Bihar special intensive revision of electoral rolls, the Election Commission on Monday said no party has approached it for inclusion or removal of names in the draft voters' list in the state.

The draft roll is open for people and parties to file claims and objections till September 1.

According to an EC bulletin, no political party has approached it between August 1 and August 11 (Monday) over the inclusion or removal of names from the draft electoral roll of Bihar.


The EC said 10,570 forms have so far been received from individual electors seeking inclusion of names in the draft roll.

Opposition MPs, including Leaders of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, took out a protest march on Monday from Parliament House to the Election Commission against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged "vote chori" but were stopped midway by the police and detained amid high drama.

The opposition has been protesting in both Houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging that the EC's exercise is aimed at "disenfranchising voters" in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections due later this year.

EC officials have defended the exercise, saying many "non-eligible persons" have been able to procure voter cards as the SIR was not held periodically since 2004 and also that "many persons" have, knowingly or unknowingly, managed to retain multiple voter cards of different constituencies.