Sat Jul 05 13:29:17 UTC 2025: **News Article:**
**CEC Asserts Regular Dialogue with Parties Amidst Opposition Concerns**
**Firozabad (UP), July 5, 2025** – Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar addressed concerns raised by opposition parties regarding the Election Commission’s (EC) responsiveness, asserting that the commission maintains a consistent and open dialogue with all political stakeholders. Speaking to reporters in Firozabad, Mr. Kumar highlighted that the EC has conducted over 5,000 meetings with political parties at various levels over the past four months.
“The Election Commission keeps having a regular dialogue with various political parties. In the last four months, all-party meetings were organised in every assembly constituency, in every district and also with every State chief electoral officer. In all, 5000 such meetings were held in which 28,000 people, including leaders of political parties, participated,” stated Mr. Kumar. He emphasized the importance of political parties, after voters, as key stakeholders in the electoral process.
Addressing specific criticisms about the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, the CEC elaborated on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He clarified that individuals listed in the 2003 voter list of Bihar will be considered eligible based on Article 326 of the Constitution. This means approximately 4.96 crore voters (60% of total electors) included in the 2003 SIR will not be required to submit supporting documents for verification. For the remaining three crore voters, the EC will require one of eleven listed documents to establish their place or date of birth.
The EC plans to upload the 2003 Bihar electoral roll on its website, enabling voters to easily extract relevant information for the SIR process. The goal is to ensure accurate voter rolls, including all eligible citizens while excluding ineligible individuals.
Bihar, which has over 7.89 crore voters across 243 assembly seats, is scheduled for elections later this year.
First Piper 