EC's directions not followed during SIR, will take issue to streets: RJD's Sanjay Yadav

New Delhi: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar has not been carried out in a transparent manner and Election Commission's directions were not followed, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav said, stressing that Rashtriya Janata Dal and other opposition parties will take the issue to the streets.

In an interview with PTI, Yadav said they have people's support on the issue and the opposition parties will not relent in their fight against the ongoing exercise.

"If the EC does not listen to us, we will go to the people. If you remove people from a democracy, what is left?" he said.

"The feedback we have from the ground is that there was no transparency in the way the SIR exercise was carried out, and the directions of the EC were not followed," the RJD leader alleged.

"For the first 20 days, there were no booth-level officers (BLOs) on the booths, very few physical visits by BLOs have happened, and very few verifications have been done. They just downloaded the voters' list and uploaded forms with false and fabricated signatures without any documents," he alleged.

He questioned the data on deaths given by the Election Commission.

"Summary revision happened from October to January, 4.5 lakh names were removed during that as well. There were people who died, or moved.

"Now after five months, they are saying 25 lakh more people have been found to be dead, so many have shifted... We don't have a problem with the procedure, but do the figures match with the records?" he said.

"Has the birth and death registrar of Bihar said so many people have died in the last five-six months?" he questioned.

He said the SoP provided that the BLO would visit the person's house three times.

"Did the BLO visit the houses as per SoP? Did you give notice to the person before removing their name from the roll? We have had our doubts, worries, suggestions," he said He also questioned claims made earlier by the EC about BLOs finding foreign nationals in the state.

"The EC has given an over 700-page affidavit in the Supreme Court. Not even at one place have they mentioned any Bangladeshi, Rohingya'¦" he said.

"Even if there is anybody, you have been in power for the last 20 years in Bihar, and 11 years at the Centre. You are responsible for it," he said.

Yadav also said that previous elections, including the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, were held on that roll. "All elections in the last 20 years have been held based on that electoral roll, so if anyone is responsible, it is the government," he said.

"It is a total failure of the state and the central government if any foreign national becomes a voter in our country. It's a total failure and collapse of your governance, not the opposition".

The RJD leader said they are not satisfied with the clarifications given by the EC, and added that they would take the battle to the ground.

"We are not satisfied with the clarifications given by the Election Commission. We met them in Delhi, Patna... The EC gave a monologue; they only did one-way communication," he alleged.

"Had the suggestions and complaints been handled transparently, we would not have had any objections. The EC has had a partial attitude, that is why we had to go to the streets and forced a 'Bihar Band'," he said.

Yadav also said the people were with them on the issue.

"It is an issue of democracy, people are with us, the system is with them. We will go to the streets, if there are discrepancies, if there is no transparency, we will keep raising our voice," he said.

"Opposition parties together did a Bihar Bandh, we will go on the streets again," he added.

The draft electoral roll for poll-bound Bihar was published on Friday after the month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission, which will now invite "claims and objections" by voters till September 1.

There were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state before the SIR began in June, according to the EC.

In the first stage of SIR, voters were provided with "enumeration forms", either by booth-level officers (BLO) or booth-level agents (BLA) nominated by political parties, which they were to return after putting their signatures and appending documents acceptable as proof of identity. People also had the option of downloading and submitting these enumeration forms online.

The process was over by July 25 and, according to the EC, "7.23 crore voters" submitted their enumeration forms, while 35 lakh were found to have "permanently migrated or gone untraceable".

Another 22 lakh have been reported to be deceased, while seven lakh people were registered as voters in more than one electoral roll.

The EC also claimed that enumeration forms were not submitted by 1.2 lakh voters.

The EC has assured that no name will be deleted from the draft electoral roll of Bihar without following due process.