Bihar voters - All Political about it !! :::: Surge in residential applications in Seemanchal region suggests many applicants are immigrants from other countries - says BJP

The politics around Voters' list in Bihar is far from over. 

During the ongoing SIR process, the four Seemanchal districts -- Kishanganj, Purnia, Araria and Katihar - with substantial Muslim population have recorded a rush of people applying for residential certificates.

Needless to add such a 'certificate is one of the 11 Election Commission-mandated identity documents. 

In Kishanganj bordering Siliguri-Jalpaiguri region of West Bengal over 70 per cent of the population is from the minority community.

Three other districts Purnia, Araria and Katihar have 40-45 per cent Muslim population. Statewide Bihar has only 17 per cent Muslim population.

In the first two weeks of July, Purnia received 98,200 applications, Katihar 1.32 lakh, Kishanganj 3.23 lakh and Araria 53,556 applications. 

Hence questions are being asked and eyebrows are also raised. 

BJP leader and Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary says the increase in 'residential applications' in the region suggested many of the applicants are "immigrants from other countries". 

Going further he said -- "We suspect a sizable percentage of the people in Kishanganj could be from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan”.

The other side of the tale is that RJD’s Jokihat MLA Shahnawaz Alam has been reportedly 'spending' bulk of his time at his ancestral village Sisauna in Araria district. 

With the Election Commission’s September 1 deadline for uploading of identity documents as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) looming, Alam is worried that document submission in his constituency hasn’t crossed 85%.

His apprehension is that his 'captive voters' may miss out !!

Jokihat MLA Alam counters BJP version and says the 'rush' for domicile certificates is because people in the region, among the most backward in the state, have few documents other than Aadhaar and ration card.

Incidentally, both these cards are not among the EC’s list of 11 identity documents for the SIR process.

Alam's argument is near classic.

“This is not a developed region. The Jokihat Assembly seat would not have more than 10 per cent voters with Class 10 certificates. Which is why, residential certificates are the most sought after of the 11 documents mandated by the EC". 

In Jokihat block alone, over 50,000 applications for residential certificates are pending with the Right to Public Service centre.

Asked about the high pendency of residential applications in Seemanchal and some other regions, an official of the Bihar Administrative Reforms Mission told journalists -- “We have to stop our services intermittently because there are too many applications for domicile certificates. 

Since the SIR began, we have received over 80 lakh domicile applications from across the state. Since we have a big number of applications from Seemanchal districts, the process is taking time".

At Sisauna village of Araria, Abdul Mannan, a former mukhiya, says that until Aadhaar and ration cards are allowed to be submitted, several electors in his village, most of them women and daily wagers, might end up outside the voter list. 

“Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to get BLOs to people’s doorsteps to collect their documents or guide them,” he says. 

One of the three BLOs of Sisauna village, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says about 10-12 per cent of the 1,800 electors only have Aadhaar or ration cards as identity proof.

At Thakurganj in Kishanganj district, a Booth Level Officer – the EC-appointed official tasked with getting the forms filled and documents uploaded ahead of the deadline – says, “Most people have submitted domicile certificates. Those who were not able to submit one of the 11 documents have applied for these certificates". 

About 100 people, either marked as ‘dead’ or ‘permanently shifted’, have been deleted from the draft rolls in this locality. 

At the Bahadurganj Block Office in Kishanganj district, where BLOs are busy sorting documents of electors, 87 per cent forms in the block have been uploaded with one of the 11 documents, say sources. One of the BLOs says :  “In some cases, the names of voters do not match their other documents as they would have used aliases in the Voter I card".

At Guna Chaurasi village in Bahadurganj, Khurshid Alam (56), who is on 2003 list, says, “My first name is Khurshid, but it’s spelt as Khurashid in the draft roll. That’s causing me trouble. Also, my wife’s name is Mahenigar but her 2003 list says Nigar Jehan. She has now been asked to produce her father’s identity papers along with an affidavit stating that she is Mahenigar, not Nigar Jehan", says a report in 'Indian Express'. 

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