CPI(ML) has been exposing the lies of the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding the Bihar ‘VoteBandi’ SIR policy since the day it was imposed on the people of Bihar. Ground reports and the ECI’s own statistics have shown how over 65 lakh people’s names have been deleted till date, with more deletions expected once the document submission process ends.
On 12 August, CPIML MLA from Agiaon, Comrade Shiv Prakash Ranjan, accompanied Mintu Paswan to Delhi. From the Arrah Vidhan Sabha constituency in Bihar’s Bhojpur, Mintu Paswan’s name had been deleted from the draft SIR roll as “dead”. During the case in the Supreme Court regarding Bihar SIR, he informed the court that he is alive but has been marked as dead in the electoral rolls. He also holds an EPIC card and has voted in various Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in previous years. In this constituency, CPIML found several other names, including Shankar Chauhan, Madan Chauhan, Suda Devi and Fulazaro Devi, which were deleted despite the individuals being alive.
These are not isolated incidents. CPI(ML) teams on the ground, conducting booth-level surveys, have found several people across Bihar who are alive and present but have been declared dead or missing in the SIR process.
On 10 August, a CPIML team led by Comrade Kumar Parvez visited Booth No. 83 of Dharaychak village in Phulwari, where 70-year-old Samkali Devi’s name has been struck off from the electoral rolls. The names of her husband and son were also deleted without providing any reason.
On 8 August, Amit Kumar Paswan, BLA-2 of CPI(ML) from Booth Number 152 (old) and 173 (new), 85-Bahadurpur Vidhan Sabha, Bihar, filed a detailed complaint with the District Magistrate, Darbhanga, regarding the deletion of voters who are present in the village but whose names have been removed from the SIR list without giving any reasons either to the people or to the BLAs. There is a total of 818 voters present in the booth, and 59 names were deleted from the draft SIR list. Out of these 59 people, CPI(ML) teams on the ground have physically verified the presence of 20. Notably, two people — Motilal Yadav and Dhyani Yadav — had their names in the 2003 voter list, yet they are among those disenfranchised by the ECI.
Another complaint was filed by a CPI(ML) BLA from Anar Sidhauli panchayat of Hayaghat Assembly Constituency (Darbhanga). The complaints concern the unjust deletion of voters from Bahujan communities, particularly Musahar, Paswan, Sahni and Yadav castes. Following these complaints, the concerned BLOs have been suspended in these two booths, which clearly shows that the administration is aware of the issue and is trying to make scapegoats of the BLOs.
Those whose names have been deleted are being forced by ECI officials to get their names included in the draft by filling Form 6, which is meant for new voters. CPI(ML) has repeatedly raised the issue of how Form 6 is being forced on people whose votes have been deleted, leaving no proper mechanism to file claims and objections.
Despite several complaints being filed by CPI(ML) and party-authorised BLAs, the ECI has been issuing misleading press releases claiming no party has filed any claims or objections. This raises strong suspicion that the ECI’s effort is to suppress the truth.
CPI(ML) demands that the Election Commission of India immediately put up the draft voter rolls, especially the names of deleted voters, specifying the grounds for deletion (death, permanent migration, duplication, not traceable) in every panchayat for public access.
