The Congress on Sunday claimed that the party’s booth-level agents had submitted 89 lakh complaints of irregularities during the special intensive revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls, but the Election Commission rejected all.

However, the Bihar chief electoral officer rejected the claim, saying that no booth-level agent of the Congress had submitted any objection on any name in the draft electoral rolls published on August 1 in the prescribed format.

Speaking during a press conference, Congress leader Pawan Khera said: “The Election Commission keeps getting news planted through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.”

Khera further claimed that the party’s booth-level agents were told by the poll panel that complaints could only be submitted by individuals and not political parties.

“Our booth-level agents left no stone unturned in filing complaints and objections of those voters whose names were deleted, and all applications were submitted to the district election officer concerned,” said the Congress leader.

The draft voter list published on August 1 showed that 65.6 lakh names had been removed. Of these, 22 lakh were due to deaths, 36 lakh were of people who had permanently shifted or were untraceable and seven lakh were duplicate entries.

Khera’s statements came days after Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that no political party had lodged objections after the draft roll was published.

On August 17, Kumar said that the main purpose of the revision exercise was to “purify” the voter list, adding that it was carried out after receiving several complaints from political parties.

However, The Hindu had quoted workers of political parties as saying on August 9 that they had filed several complaints.

Party workers had told the newspaper that when they flag the deletion of names of eligible voters through complaints, the electoral registration officers tell them to ask the voters to submit Form 6, which is for the registration of new voters.

On Sunday, Khera demanded that the exercise to revise electoral rolls be conducted again, alleging that “large-scale irregularities” had taken place.

He also claimed that the Congress had found several cases where the same voter was given two Electors Photo Identification Card numbers.

“We also have their receipts, and now this fact cannot be denied,” said Khera. “We hope that the data we have provided will be verified by the Election Commission and an investigation conducted into that. There is a need for door-to-door verification again to correct these mistakes.”

The revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar was announced by the Election Commission on June 24, ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar scheduled to be held in October-November.

As part of the exercise, persons whose names were not on the 2003 voter list needed to submit proof of eligibility to vote.

Voters born before July 1, 1987, were required to show proof of their date and place of birth, while those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, had to also submit documents establishing the date and place of birth of one of their parents.

Those born after December 2, 2004, needed proof of date of birth for themselves and both parents.

The final list will be published on September 30.

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