As opposition parties continue to raise concerns over the Special Intensive Revision, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday said it is a general practice to update the voter list before every election as a part of the law. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at an event in UP’s Firozabad on July 5. (Sourced)

He also said the work for the Special Intensive Revision was going on with full transparency in Bihar. Replying to queries from reporters in Firozabad, where he came to attend a private event, Kumar said: “As part of the law, before every election, the voter list needs to be updated. A detailed investigation of the voter list and all voter details was not conducted after January 1, 2003 although general revisions were undertaken. This is supposed to be a general practice.”

“Previously in 2002, the voter list had special intensive revision in Bihar for 31 days from July 15 to August 14 and this time, the process is on since June 24 and will end on July 25,” he added.

“After recently held elections, the Election Commission decided to coordinate with political parties and almost all political parties had outlined ‘impurities’ in the voter list and stressed the need to refine the voter list,” the CEC said. “As such, this time in Bihar, within a month period of July and August, forms will be distributed and will also be taken back and work for this is on track,” he added.

“Nearly every political party complained about issues in the authenticity of the voter list, and demanded updates. More than 1 lakh booth-level officers are working on it with the support of all political parties. No ineligible person will be able to make it into this list,” the CEC told reporters.

“This time, we have informed about documents to be attached with the form and if they could not be submitted now, it could be done later as we have advanced technology these days,” Kumar said.

“If one talks about transparency and credibility of the Election Commission, we can assure that the voter list will be finalised with full transparency and all those entitled will be part of it and those undeserving will not find place therein,” he added.

“According to Article 326 of the Indian Constitution, there are eligibility criteria for being a voter which first requires that one should be a citizen of India and secondly he should not be less than 18 years of age. They can have their voter card made from the polling centre nearest to their place of residence they ordinarily reside,” the CEC said.

Replying to a question regarding the offensive being launched by opposition parties against the Election Commission, the CEC said that the poll panel was in constant communication with the political parties.

“For the last four months, the Election Commission has been organising all party meetings and so is done at district level. The state election commissioners are also meeting political parties. In all, around 5,000 such meetings have been held wherein 28,000 leaders of various parties have attended them,” Kumar added.

“We continue meeting political parties and by now we have met 4 national parties and more than 4 state level parties. We continue meeting all party delegations coming to us on certain issues’ he said. “For the Election Commission, the main stakeholder is voter and then most important is political parties. Before criticising the EC, people should keep reading orders issued from time to time by us’ the CEC added.

“Those in voter list, which was last revised 22 years ago in Bihar, are to be considered eligible voters and do not need to provide documents nor their wards will be required to give documents of their parents when becoming voters,” Kumar said.