Bihar State Election Authority is a statutory body entrusted with the duty and responsibility of holding elections to various grass-roots level organisations like Co-operative Societies in the State of Bihar through an act of Legislature of Bihar in 2008.
Be it a Primary Co-operative Society at the Panchayat level or a School Committee (siksha samiti) these organizations are run by office-bearers elected from among members of these bodies. These elected members are vested with considerable financial and discretionary powers.
For example, a Primary Agriculture Co-operative Credit Society is the basic unit on which the entire co-operative credit and marketing edifices rest. It is at the bottom of the pyramid, whose apex on the credit side is the State Co-operative Banks and on the marketing side is the State Marketing Federations.
Elections to such grass-roots level and apex organizations are conducted by varied
kind of bodies, which are not regulated by uniform guidelines. As a result, more
often than not election to these bodies lack transparency, and may in turn lead
to perpetuation of power-elites within such bodies.
The Government of Bihar deemed it expedient in public interest to provide a common
mechanism and procedure for holding elections to these bodies. To achieve this end,
the Bihar Legislature enacted Bihar State Election Authority Act, 2008.
The Bihar State Election Authority is a unique body, the like of which cannot be
found in any other State or Union Territory in the country. It is appropriate that
Bihar should take such a pioneering initiative, because, as students of history
know, ancient Bihar was home to some of earliest seats of democracy like the Licchavi
republic.