Hello,
In part two of our deep dive into Bihar’s draft electoral rolls we unearthed something astounding.
Even after the Election Commission’s sprint special intensive revision exercise in Bihar, we found more than 80,000 voters living under fake or dubious addresses in just three assembly constituencies in Bihar – Pipra, Bagaha and Motihari.
In the most preposterous example, ECI had registered 509 voters from different families, castes, and communities as living together in a single house of Galimpur village in Pipra assembly constituency of Bihar. The number alone is not the striking part. In reality, the house does not exist.
In the same village, there was another example, in a non-existent house, the ECI had registered 459 people as voters in the Pipra constituency.
Between the three assembly constituencies in Bihar, Pipra, Bagaha, and Motihari, our investigation unearthed 3,590 cases where ECI has registered 20 or more people at a single address. In total 80,000 voters.
This revelation goes completely against the ECI’s claims that its special intensive revision exercise has completely cleaned and purified voter lists in Bihar. In fact it appears that the 30 day sprint to complete it has added more ghosts and errors.
Read my latest report in collaboration with my colleague Vishnu Narayan here- Bihar: ECI bundled and registered 80,000 voters on fake or wrong addresses in just 3 constituencies
You can read all our previous reportage from the project it here: The Electoral Roll Project.
We have been covering this scandal from all angles from the get go. But the Indian government’s tax notice has put a serious strain on our finances. Nevertheless our small newsroom has kept going to keep tabs on our democratic process.
Warm Regards,
Ayushi Kar
Reporter
The Reporters’ Collective