NEW DELHI: Clarifying further amid the raging uproar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of upcoming Bihar assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday said eligible citizens should register themselves as voters only in constituencies of which they are ‘ordinary residents’ and not the place ‘where they own a house’.Addressing a group of booth-level officers here, the CEC said, “As per the Representation of the People Act, you are entitled to vote only in the assembly constituency where you are an ordinary resident. For example, if you ordinarily reside in Delhi but own a house in Patna, your vote should be registered in Delhi, not in Patna.”Kumar’s remarks assumed greater significance in view of the poll panel’s exercise of SIR of electoral roll in Bihar, which is set to go for assembly election later this year.According to Election Commission officials, the key objective of the SIR drive is to identify such people, who have, knowingly or unknowingly, managed to retain multiple voter cards for different constituencies.There are many, who are ordinary residents of one place and have got their voter card from their current location and retained their earlier card from their past places before migration, which, the officials pointed out, “is a criminal offence”.The opposition parties, both in Bihar and elsewhere, are criticising the SIR exercise saying this could deprive genuine voters of their right and benefit the ruling dispensation in the state.
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