7-8 lakh duplicate voters in the state: Bihar CEO

According to Election Commission estimates around 7-8 lakh duplicate voters exist in the electoral rolls of Bihar, Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ajay V Naik said today.
This is despite the fact that names of around 3.8 lakh duplicate voters were removed from the rolls before Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.
"During the last revision of electoral rolls before the Parliamentary elections, around 3.8 lakh duplicate voters were removed. Still, as per our estimates, around 7 to 8 lakh additional duplication exists. That's around 3 per cent of extra electors in the rolls. We intend to remove them," Naik said.

The Bihar CEO was talking to reporters on the eve of the publication of the draft electoral rolls for the 243 assembly constituencies in the state. With this the EC will launch a 'Special Summary Revision' of the electoral rolls with an eligibility date of January 1, 2015.
Youths who would attain the age of 18 by then can contact Booth Level Officers (BLO) between November 1 and December 1, 2014 for the inclusion of their names. They can also directly log on to the EC's or Bihar CEO's website and submit online applications.
New entries, correction of errors in the rolls, updation of database and printing will be completed by January 8, 2015. Final electoral rolls will be published on January 15 and the exercise is being carried out with an eye on the state assembly elections scheduled next year.

Talking about errors like spelling, gender or age related mistakes in the electoral rolls, Naik said an estimated 30 lakh errors remain though around 1.2 crore errors were corrected in the revision done prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He also added that the centralised database available now will help removing duplication of names, as well as, errors easily.

Naik said the number of polling stations in Bihar has been increased to 62,779 from the existing 59,807.
"This has been done as per EC guidelines of dividing booths having more than 1,600 voters. The number of electors in the draft elector rolls has seen a jump from 6.21 crore to over 6.34 crore," Naik said.

According to the draft elector rolls, there are 3.39 crore males, 2.95 crore females and 1,914 third gender voters in the state.