Election Commission announces 17 new initiatives for upcoming Bihar polls, to be implemented across India

Election Commission

The Election Commission on Sunday announced its decision to implement 17 new initiatives to ensure that the upcoming Bihar elections are conducted smoothly. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that all these initiatives will be implemented across the country.

"Seventeen new initiatives have been successfully implemented in Bihar; some will be implemented in the conduct of elections, and some in counting," he said.

He added, "Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are responsible for preparing the voter list. In Bihar, there is an ERO in each of the 243 assembly constituencies. Together, they, along with 243 EROs and 90,207 BLOs, completed the task of cleansing the voter list after nearly 22 years."

Kumar also spoke about changes to the ballot paper, saying it will now feature colour photographs of candidates. "When the ballot paper is inserted into the EVM, the photo on it is black and white, making it difficult to identify, even though the election symbol remains. It was also suggested that the serial number should be larger. So, starting with the Bihar elections, the serial number font will be larger across the country, and the candidates’ photographs will be colour photographs," he said.

The CEC said that under the new initiatives, over 7,000 BLOs and BLO supervisors from across India were trained at IIIDEM in New Delhi. He also said that the remuneration for BLOs, polling and counting staff, and other teams involved in the election process has been doubled.

The Election Commission has also announced that counters will be set up outside polling stations for voters to deposit their mobile phones. The CEC explained that this step aims to reduce crowds and queues outside polling booths.

He further said that additional booths will be established in high-rise societies and residential complexes.

Additionally, the CEC said that the EC has revised its guidelines to make EVM ballot papers more readable, and EVMs will have colour photographs of candidates for the first time. “Hundred per cent webcasting will be carried out in every booth during the Bihar polls,” he added.

The Poll Commission also announced that the Systematic Identification and Revision (SIR) exercise, launched on June 24, 2025, has been successfully completed. For the first time, booth-level officers (BLOs) were trained to ensure greater accuracy in the voter list.

It added that new measures have been introduced to strengthen polling station management.

“The Election Commission has decided that no polling station will have more than 1,200 voters," officials said.

In addition, all booth-level officials have been issued identity cards for easier recognition during voter interactions.