PATNA, July 16 -- Around 3.5 million voters in Bihar, who have either died or shifted from their previous addresses, or have their names in two places, would now be deleted from the electoral rolls that are being updated under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), according to the Election Commission of India (ECI) officials. In a press note issued by the ECI, it has been said that out of 78.9 million voters enlisted in the voter rolls, 1.59 % of the voters (1.260 million) have been found deceased whereas around 2.2% (1.737 million) voters have shifted permanently to other places, while another 0.73 % ( .576 million) voters have their names in two places (more than one assembly constituency). The EC officials also said that 681 million or 86.32 percent out of 789 million electors have submitted their enumeration forms( EFs) till Tuesday, In more broader terms, accounting for the deceased, permanently shifted or those who are enrolled in more than one place, the EF collection phase of the SIR has covered 90.84% of the nearly 79 million strong electorate in Bihar. Only, 9.16% electors remain to submit their filled EFs before July 25 deadline, sai the EC officials. The first draft of verified electoral rolls will be prepared based on these forms and it is scheduled to be published on August 1, 2025. The press note also said that the electors, who have might have temporarily migrated out of the state, are being contacted through newspaper advertisements so that they are able to fill their EFs well in time and have their names included in the draft ER. The EC officials said that those temporarily staying outside the state can use mobile phones through the ECINet app or through the online form on https://voters.eci.gov.in. They can also send their forms to the concerned BLOs through their family members or through online means, including WhatsApp or similar applications. The press note also said that the ECINet is also accelerating the process of updation of forms and documents for the field level election functionaries resulting in the uploading of over 574 million enumeration forms till evening on Monday. Meanwhile, reacting on possible deletion of voters from the draft ER, CPI-ML(liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the identification of dead voters or duplicate names was a natural process and that there was no problem if such entries were deleted from the rolls. Bhattacharya however lambasted the voter roll drive....