New Delhi: Bihar’s electoral roll has shrunk by almost 6% following the three-month long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the poll-bound state, with about 47 lakh net deletions, as the Election Commission of India released the final electoral list on Tuesday (September 30).The EC on Tuesday said in a statement that while there were 7.89 crore voters in the state when the SIR was announced on June 24, the final number of electors in the state, following the three-month revision, now stands at 7.42 crore – a decrease of 5.95%. This implies that 47 lakh voters who were on the rolls as of June 24 have been excluded from the final electoral roll published on Tuesday.The draft list published on August 1 had 7.24 crore electors, with 65 lakh voters left off from it. Another 3.66 lakh ineligible voters were removed from the draft list and 21.53 lakh eligible voters were added through Form 6.The Election Commission had earlier said that those electors whose names were not found on the draft list could file claims and objections through Form 6.Announcing the SIR on June 24, the Election Commission had said that the exercise had been necessitated due to various reasons, among which was the inclusion of “foreign illegal immigrants” in the electoral roll. However, the poll body’s statement on Tuesday made no mention of how many such foreign illegal immigrants were found.“Various reasons such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants have necessitated the conduct of an intensive revision so as to ensure integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls,” the EC had said in its statement on June 24. Of the 65 lakh electors deleted in the first list, 22 lakh voters were declared deceased, 36 lakh permanently shifted or not found, and seven lakh had duplicate entries in multiple places. The SIR kicked off on June 25 with an enumeration of forms phase following which the draft electoral roll was published on August 1. This was followed by a period of furnishing claims and objections till September 1.The EC statement on Tuesday also said that eligible voters can continue to apply for inclusion in the rolls up to ten days before the last date for filing nominations for elections.“If any eligible person still wishes to apply for inclusion of their name in [the] Electoral Roll, they can submit an application up to ten days before [the] last date for filing nominations for [the] election,” the statement said.Earlier this month the EC had informed the Supreme Court, where the SIR exercise has been challenged, that claims and objections will be accepted even after the publication of the final roll on September 1.The exercise has faced criticism for being a drive to prove citizenship in the garb of revising electoral rolls and a mechanism to usher in NRC through the backdoor. The Supreme Court will hear the final arguments in the case challenging the SIR on October 7. It had said in the last hearing that irrespective of the publication of the voter roll, if there is illegality, the court can still intervene.“What difference will it (the final publication of the list) make to us? If we are satisfied there is some illegality, we can [still intervene],” Justice Surya Kant said, according to LiveLaw.Concerns had been raised about exclusion of voters due to the 11 documents that had been listed by the poll body which did not include readily available documents like Aadhaar, voter ID, and ration cards. A grand total of 77 days after the exercise started, the EC issued instructions to the Bihar CEO on September 9 that Aadhaar will be included as the 12th document along with the 11 documents listed in its June 24 order. Following the Supreme Court’s directions, the EC added that “Aadhaar Card is to be accepted and utilised as a proof of identity and not as a proof of citizenship.”