In Bihar’s Jamui district, a shocking error in the draft voters’ list has recorded 230 people as living in the same house. The mistake came to light during the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls, published on August 1. Residents of Aamin village in Chaudiha panchayat said they live in different houses, but the draft list shows all of them under house number 3 of ward number 3.
“How is it possible? This shows the BLO didn’t bother to conduct a house-to-house survey,” one resident said. Noor Hasan, 70, claimed the booth-level officer (BLO) never visited her home to distribute forms and instead filled them from another house without getting signatures from voters. “This is sheer callousness,” she said. Mohammad Danish alleged that BLOs Rajiv Kumar and Gautam Kumar completed the forms without visiting homes. Mohammad Shahnawaz said even deceased people’s names, such as Kaushal Khatoon who died three years ago, were still in the list despite the family submitting correction forms.
Deputy election officer Mohammad Nazrul Haq said the matter has been reported for correction. BLO Rajiv Kumar blamed a technical glitch and said he has informed the block development officer. “The anomaly will be rectified using form 7,” he said.
Similar issues were found in Patna’s Gardanibagh, where 22 deceased people appeared in the list. In booth number 479 of Digha constituency, Shankar Prasad, his son Navin, and Navin’s wife Sita Devi — who died in 2010, 2020, and 2021 — were still registered as voters. Shankar’s brother, Surendra Prasad, said even his daughter-in-law’s form had errors, such as listing his name instead of her husband’s. In Saristabad, Ram Sundar Rai said his wife, who died in 2023, was still listed despite him not filling her form.
Statewide, 2,92,048 voters have their house numbers listed as ‘0’, ‘00’, or ‘000’. Magadh and Patna divisions have the highest numbers of such entries, with Obra constituency in Aurangabad topping the list at 6,637 voters. An official at the chief electoral office explained that in many villages, people don’t remember their house numbers, so they simply write ‘0’. “We are looking into this,” he said.
