Actor Prakash Raj has claimed his name was deleted from Bengaluru's electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision process, affecting 6.5 million voters. He expressed frustration and questioned the ruling dispensation, while reports indicate his name was marked as "permanently shifted" due to a previous case involving multiple voter IDs.
The Calcutta high court has held that voter identity cards, Aadhaar and PAN cards are not conclusive proof of Indian citizenship.
"While Sinha's age is 57 years in one list and 60 years in another. Is this not fraud and an age scam? He must have filled two different forms in two different assembly constituencies. He deliberately got two votes registered in two different places. If he did not personally sign both forms, then did the Election Commission create two different votes for him in two different assembly constituencies based on forged signatures? Will he receive two different notices, or are these rules only for the opposition leaders?" he alleged.
Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab of political vendetta after his name was marked as 'shifted' in the draft electoral rolls despite being registered in Mohali. The AAP has refuted the claims, stating that Chadha has been living in Delhi and was attempting to get his voter registration made in Delhi through a 'backdated process'.
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to provide details regarding the approximately 65 lakh voters removed from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar, a state preparing for elections. The court's order comes in response to a petition filed by an NGO challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge alleges that Form 7 was misused under the previous BJP government to delete voters 'en masse' ahead of the May 2023 Assembly polls. He claims a large-scale voter deletion attempt was made in the Aland constituency, targeting Congress supporters, especially Dalit and minority voters.
'The final electoral roll will be published on October 7, 2026.' 'If someone who is otherwise eligible does not find his/her name in that electoral roll, they can fill Form 6 along with other necessary documents to enrol his/her name in the electoral roll after the final publication of the electoral roll also.'
The Supreme Court of India resumed hearing petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, addressing the use of Aadhaar and concerns about voter deletions.
'I don't want to be called a new Indian voter when I am an old Indian voter.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi has two voter identity cards having separate addresses and the Election Commission is examining how she was issued two documents from different localities.
The Supreme Court has directed the establishment of independent appellate tribunals, led by former high court judges, to address appeals related to voter list exclusions in West Bengal, while also cautioning against undermining judicial officers involved in the process.
Hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls were underway in West Bengal, focusing on 'unmapped' voters who are unable to establish linkage with the 2002 electoral roll. Many people are being asked to prove their citizenship.
The government sources said the bill incorporates various electoral reforms which have been discussed for a long time.
The RJD, which has been voicing apprehensions that the SIR might have been carried out to "help" the BJP-led NDA, also urged the EC to divulge details of the 3.66 lakh persons whose names were deleted from the final electoral roll published earlier this week.
The Supreme Court has begun hearing petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct a special intensive revision exercise in Bihar ahead of elections, raising concerns about voter exclusion.
'Look at the way SIR that was implemented in Bengal. They wanted to entirely curate the voter list in order to suit their purposes and victory.' 'Look at the targeted deletions and the targeted voting list.' 'The difference between the TMC and the BJP was only about 4% but that 4% vote was done so selectively that the difference ultimately showed up as 100 seats!'
The Supreme Court declined to hear a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Election Commission and state election bodies to address purported duplication and multiple entries in voter lists. The court suggested the petitioner approach high courts with specific grievances and file representations with appropriate authorities.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi is likely to take up the matter in which the EC has justified its ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it adds to the purity of the election by "weeding out ineligible persons" from the electoral rolls.
The central government has provided armed security to West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer following potential threats related to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
A bill to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem to weed out duplication was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to revise electoral rolls in Bihar. The hearing is scheduled for July 10.
The opposition parties were demanding a division of votes as they had moved a motion to send the Bill to a select committee, which was rejected by voice vote.
The EC said that the data should be deleted by health authorities once the vaccination exercise concludes.
'Talking about boycotting polls is simply a move to galvanise party leaders, workers, and supporters for the big political fight.'
What we are watching is something different: A fog manufactured and maintained by the people who started the war, so that the question of why it was started never has to be answered, observes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the war in the Middle East.
'The EC should not have let the initiative go into the hands of the political leadership. By allowing this to happen, they have opened a Pandora's box.'
The Congress party has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of incompetence and partisanship following the Chief Election Commissioner's (CEC) defense of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. The party alleges the CEC failed to address concerns about voter list irregularities and is acting in favor of the ruling BJP.
As round one of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election began in 91 constituencies across the length and breadth of India, from the hills of Kashmir to the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, reports of unrest and irregularities cast shadows over the world's biggest poll process.
Aam Aadmi Party claimed that there are a large number of "fake" voters in Delhi and alleged that it was result of collusion among local level officers, against whom it sought exemplary action.
When Reeti Pandharipande walked into the polling booth at 7 am, she expected to vote. Many hours later, she returned home tired and frustrated, with a finger that was not ink-stained.
A day after over two lakh Mumbaikars, including several prominent personalities, were left disenfranchised after their names were found missing from the electoral rolls, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked the election authorities on Friday, to revise electoral rolls.
The Aadhaar-enabled payment system, or AEPS, allows consumers who don't have smartphones or debit cards to perform basic banking transactions like cash deposit, cash withdrawal, intrabank or interbank fund transfer, balance enquiry and obtaining a mini statement through biometric authentication at micro-ATMs.
'The failure of the ECI to follow the Registration of Electoral Rules and create verified and audited rolls or even verifiable and auditable ones, highlight that the entire electoral roll is merely a compilation of names without any effort or intention for completeness, correctness or fair play.' 'We are fooling ourselves by electing our representatives based on faulty electoral rolls that do not represent the people of the constituency. Elections based on these rolls are neither free nor fair. Democracy is under siege,' says Dr Anupam Saraph.
The amended bill also provides for a stiff Rs 1 crore penalty and a jail term for private entities for storing Aadhaar data.
Applying for a passport is no longer the nightmare it used to be, thanks to the government outsourcing parts of the process. But there still are things you need to know before you take the plunge.
This time however, the poll panel did not share the overall polling percentage at its briefing.
