Burqa-clad voters should be verified by female staff, says Bihar BJP chief in meeting with CEC

Patna: Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal on Saturday met Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and put forward several suggestions ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, including that burqa-clad women voters should be identified by female officials at polling booths.

Speaking to reporters in Patna, Jaiswal said the BJP first appreciated the Election Commission of India for completing the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll fairly and on time. He said the party had called for the deployment of central paramilitary forces in villages dominated by backward, extremely backward and Dalit communities, with flag marches to build voter confidence. He also suggested horse-mounted brigades be stationed in the Diara, Taal and embankment regions to prevent booth capturing.

Jaiswal highlighted lapses reported during the previous election, such as delays in distributing voter slips. This time, he said, the BJP has requested timely distribution, text message alerts and webcasting one or two days before polling, as well as CCTV surveillance at all polling stations. The party also urged that elections be conducted in one or two phases to cut costs for candidates and ease administrative challenges.

On voter security, Jaiswal said the CEC underlined the importance of ensuring that party agents collect Form 17C, which records votes polled, before leaving stations. “The CEC pointed out that sometimes polling agents of parties leave before polling ends and later level allegations. He has specially requested all parties to ensure their agents collect Form 17C before leaving the polling station,” Jaiswal noted.

He added that the CEC made it clear that once the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect, a minimum of 28 days is required before polling can be held. “We have urged him to fix the election dates soon after this mandatory period,” Jaiswal said.