PATNA, Nov. 13 -- The impressive voter turnout in the two-phase Bihar Assembly election may have given pollsters ample fodder to debate the reasons behind the higher participation of electors. However, election officials believe that the recently concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive to sanitise the electoral rolls has played a major role in boosting voter turnout in the polls. The reason of SIR scaling up the voter's turnout could be explained in two ways; first, the santisation of the electoral rolls with deletions of around 47 lakh voters on account of either being dead, absent or duplicate entries accounting to roughly six percent from the previous electoral rolls of 7.89 crore has contributed in increasing the voter's turnout through weeding of 'ghost voters'. " There was deletion of six percent in the final rolls as per SIR from the last updated rolls till June 24. The voters' list got more sanitised and got curtailed and in the process, the voter's turnout percentage got scaled up as there was participation of genuine voters present in the rolls unlike previous times when the rolls were a bit inflated owing to dead, absent or duplicate voters. That explains the increase in poll percentage at least by six percent" said a state election department official. The overall increase in voting percentage in this election compared to poll percentage of 2020 assembly polls is 9.76%, as per the state election department. Secondly, the SIR process where electors had to go through the grind of producing documents to establish their date of birth/place of birth by submitting atleast one proof out of 11 provisioned documents as a test of citizenship for getting heir names enrolled in the updated electoral rolls is said to have made voters' more conscious about the importance of exercising franchise to safeguard their citizenship, election officials feel. One state election official, seeking anonymity, said that the higher voters turnout especially in second phase where bordering districts of Seemanchal- where muslim minorities have sizeable presence- could be attributed to the post SIR effect and some 'fear perception' in mind of voters that they may get struck off from rolls incase they do not cast their votes. " The SIR process has had its rippling effect among voters. Some viewed it as quite cumbersome while others felt it is necessary to have their names in rolls so that they do not miss out on government schemes. Political narratives did play a role in it," said a government official, seeking anonymity. He added that in bordering districts including in Seemanchal where the issue of infiltration has been in currency in political discourses for long, it is possible voters in large number cast their votes so that they could get documented as participants in the electoral exercise by casting their votes post SIR. Other factors like migrants and political issues could have also played a role in scaling up the voters' turnout in the two phases. The viewpoint is relevant as if one goes by the poll percentage data of second phase district wise as per state election department, Katihar recorded 78.53% poll turnout followed by Kishanganj where poll percentage was recorded at 78.01% while Purnea recorded 76.04% voters' turnout. In West and East Champaran, two other bordering districts close to Nepal, the poll percentage stood at 70.79 % and 71.17 percent. In other districts, however, the poll percentage howevered from 65 to 68 percent whereas Nawada recorded lowest poll percentage at 57.85%. Incidentally, the women voters' turnout in the two phases has been higher than the turnout of men voters as per the ECI data. The central poll panel , in a press note said, female voters' turnout in first phase in 121 assembly seats stood at 69.04% while the male voters' turnout in the same phase stood at 61.56% whereas in the second phase, female voters turnout stood at 74.03% while male voters' turnout was 64.1%. The overall voter turnout in two phases stood at 66.91%, which is the highest turnout recorded in the state since 1951. Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar Vinod Singh Gunjiyal on Tuesday, after the conclusion of the second phase of polling, did emphasise that SIR process had its impact on the higher voters' turnout due to the santisation of polls. "The higher voters' turnout is an effect of the SIR process where the rolls were sanitised," Gunjiyal said. Bihar's has total 7.45 crore electors after the updation of the rolls as per the SIR.....