By Arun Nair
Copyright timesnownews
The final electoral roll of Bihar is set to be published today (September 30), with the Election Commission likely to follow it up with the announcement of the poll schedule of the key state next week. The revision exercise, popularly referred to as SIR, has come under sharp criticism from opposition parties who have claimed that it will disenfranchise crores of genuine citizens of their voting rights, a charge denied by the Election Commission. The final voter list of Bihar is being published after a gap of 22 years. The draft electoral rolls were published on August 1 and were open for “claims and objections” by individuals and political parties till September 1. There were 7.24 crore electors in the draft rolls. Here are the Top Updates on this Big Story: The Opposition parties have claimed that it will disenfranchise crores of genuine citizens of their voting rights.Rejecting the allegations, the Commission asserted that it will not allow any eligible citizen to be left out of the voter list and at the same time not let any ineligible person be on the list.The matter was later taken up by the Supreme Court. The petitioners raised concern over revision process, and said that it could lead to large-scale disenfranchisement of voters. The next hearing of the case is on October 7.”It was expected that the report would come out and now it remains to be seen how much politics the opposition can do on it… If something good happens or there is any complaint, the Election Commission will be completely responsible for it…,” Union Minister Chirag Paswan said. The lists will be published amid reports of the poll body announcement of the poll schedule of the key state next week.A team from the poll authority is visiting Patna on October 4 and 5 to take stock of the poll preparedness.The first phase of the elections is likely to be held soon after the Chhath festival in late October.Four hundred seventy observers are being deployed by the EC for Bihar and some assembly bypolls.A briefing of general, police and expenditure observers is also set to take place here on October 3.The term of the 243-member Bihar Assembly ends on November 22.The last assembly elections in Bihar were held in three phases amid the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. For all the latest news and india news, visit Times Now to get live updates and breaking news around the world.
