57% enumeration forms collected, people participating enthusiastically in voter-list revision: CEC

Gyanesh Kumar said "pure" electoral rolls are inevitable for strengthening democracy

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday said the electors of Bihar have enthusiastically participated in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list,  with more than 56 per cent of the enumeration forms collected till Wednesday.

"The Election Commission of India was, is and will always be with the electors of India," the CEC said

Addressing a group of booth-level officers here, Kumar said the enthusiastic participation of the voters of Bihar has resulted in the successful collection of more than 57 per cent of the enumeration forms under the ongoing SIR in the state till Wednesday, with 16 days of the exercise still remaining.

He asserted that "pure" electoral rolls are inevitable for strengthening democracy.

Kumar's remarks came against the backdrop of various opposition parties moving the Supreme Court, questioning the intent of the SIR ahead of the Assembly polls in Bihar.

The EC has all along maintained that the revision, being held after 22 years, will cleanse the voters' list of ineligible people and duplicate entries, and include those eligible, in accordance with law, to vote.

The apex court on Monday agreed to hear on July 10 a batch of petitions challenging the ongoing SIR of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Several pleas, including a joint petition by leaders of the Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party, JMM, CPI and CPI(ML), were filed in the court against the poll panel's decision to conduct the SIR before Bihar went to polls later this year.

With inputs from PTI