The apex court sharply criticised political parties for failing to assist voters despite having over 1.68 lakh BLAs in Bihar.”After appointing BLAs, what are they doing? Why is there a distance between people and local political persons? Political parties must assist voters,” the bench observed.It directed the 12 major parties to instruct their workers to help citizens file claims using Aadhaar or any of the 11 documents. BLAs were also asked to verify whether excluded voters were genuinely absent, deceased, or had shifted residence voluntarily.The ECI informed the court that around 85,000 excluded voters had submitted their claim forms, while over 2 lakh new voters had registered under the SIR exercise.On August 14, the court had directed the poll panel to publish by August 19 the names of the 65 lakh voters removed from the draft rolls to enhance transparency, along with reasons for their exclusion.The revision, the first in Bihar since 2003, has reduced the total number of registered voters from 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore, sparking a major political row. Opposition parties have alleged that genuine voters were removed without proper verification, while the apex court noted that transparency and voter-friendly procedures would help restore confidence in the process.(WIth inputs from PTI)
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