A sharply worded factional clash unfolded as the Election Commission of India branded a video released by the Congress party in Bihar as “AI-generated” and explicitly misleading. The poll body asserted that the video failed to portray the ground reality, stressing that the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls had been executed with complete procedural transparency.
The Commission, speaking via its official X handle, warned voters not to fall prey to the manipulated clip, stating plainly that the content was “not real” and designed to mislead electors in the state. It emphasised that tens of thousands of booth-level officers, electoral registration officials and sub-divisional magistrates, along with political party-appointed agents—including those from Congress—had actively participated in the revision process. This multi-tiered system, the Commission maintained, left no room for unilateral voter roll manipulation.
The Congress party responded by intensifying its “vote theft” campaign, advancing allegations that the electoral exercise unfairly targeted marginalised communities in Bihar. The party’s leadership accused the Commission of refusing to share machine-readable voter data despite their rights to access it—a move the poll body contested, saying that parties failed to flag discrepancies in time.
Tensions deepened when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a session of tea with voters from Bihar who claimed to have been wrongly marked “dead” by the Commission. Gandhi described it as a “unique experience” and a stark example of systemic disenfranchisement. He also mocked the Commission’s errors, highlighting how those affected had to approach the Supreme Court to have their names reinstated—efforts that are now advancing judicial scrutiny over the revision process.
The Supreme Court, stepping into the fray, ordered the Commission to publish a detailed, booth-level, district-wise list of over 6.5 million voter deletions from the draft rolls, along with reasons for each removal. The list must be accessible both online and at local officer centres, and the poll body was directed to accept objections supported by Aadhaar or EPIC as valid proof of identity. The Court is scheduled to review compliance on 22 August, underlining the heightened accountability imposed on the Commission.
Trinamool Questions Validity of West Bengal’s Voter Roll Revision 