Bihar SIR Row: Hearing on petitions challenging SIR in Bihar; Supreme Court will hear the case today

The apex court will hear today the petitions challenging the Election Commission's move to the SIR of voter lists in Bihar. The court had fixed the date of hearing on August 12 and 13. The Commission has told the Supreme Court that under the law it does not need to make a separate list of the names of the people missing from the draft list. Nor is there any need to share the list or publish the reasons for not including their names for any reason.

'Opposition is only protesting in Parliament and on the streets'

Earlier, the Election Commission said on Monday that the opposition is only protesting in Parliament and on the streets. As per the rules, not a single objection has been received so far regarding the draft voter list released after SIR in Bihar. Even after 11 days, no application has come from any party to remove or add names.

Important findings of the SIR calculation

The Election Commission said that so far, 10,570 forms have been received from individual voters for inclusion of names in the list. The Commission on Monday released the key findings of the counting phase of SIR held in Bihar from June 24 to July 25. According to them, as of June 24, there were a total of 7.89 crore voters in Bihar, out of which more than 7.24 crore voters have submitted their counting forms. This is 91.69 percent of the total voters. During this period, 22 lakh voters have been found dead, 36 lakh voters have permanently moved or were not found. At the same time, there were seven lakh voters (0.89 percent) who were enrolled at multiple places.

Congress's claim of vote theft is factually incorrect.

The Election Commission called the claims of vote theft made by the Congress and its leader, Rahul Gandhi, during the protest march factually incorrect. In a fact check released on social media, the Commission shared a list of documents in support of its claims of transparency in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar. This evidence included video evidence of representatives of parties like RJD, Congress, and CPI. The Commission also shared details of its meetings with representatives of political parties before, during, and after the publication of the draft electoral roll.