By Dr. Gyan Pathak
On the last day of submission of elector forms and documents on July 25, 2025 under Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for Electoral Roll in Bihar, six million names are set to be deleted from the voter list, while new additions will be known only after the publication of the Draft Electoral Roll on August 1.
The entire opposition has been alleging that the Election Commission of India has conspired with the PM Narendra Modi led government to secure BJP’s win in Bihar, through deletion of names of existing voters and addition of new voters from outside the state, as it has done earlier in the election held in 2024 in Haryana, Delhi, and Maharashtra. The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has alleged such a practice as ‘Vote Theft’ and has announced to give proof of it with an example form a selected Lok Sabha Constituency from Karnataka.
Never before in the history of Elections in India such an allegation was made in independent India against the ECI. All political parties from the opposition have alleged that ECI has been conspiring with the PM Narendra Modi led government to secure win for the BJP in elections in the country. The voter list manipulation first came to light in an Ashoka University research work in which the research scholar had said that he had found evidence of “electoral roll manipulation” and “manipulation of election results” of 2019 General Election. The research paper had also stated that there was large gap between the initial votes polled data and the final data.
The issue of votes polled data was also raised by opposition in several elections since 2023 which included state elections and Lok Sabha election 2024. Rahul Gandhi has given in great details how elections are manipulated to secure BJP’s win, especially in Maharashtra election of 2024. Even laws were changed to conceal and destroy evidence, he had alleged.
ECI has said that it is “highly unfortunate” that rather than filing an election petition, he has not only made “baseless allegations” but also “chosen to threaten” a constitutional body.
Nevertheless, Rahul Gandhis said, “It is a serious matter. The Election Commission is not functioning as the Election Commission of India should. Today, they made a statement that’s complete nonsense. That fact of the matter is, the EC isn’t doing its job. Now we have concrete, 100% proof of the Election Commission allowing cheating on a seat in Karnataka. When we decide to show it to you, it’s 100% proof. We’ve just looked at one constituency and we’ve found it. I’m absolutely convinced that this drama is taking place constituency after constituency. Thousands and thousands of new voter registrations, voter deletion; We’ve caught them. I want to send a message to the Election Commission: if you think you’re going to get away with it, you’re mistaken. We’re going to come after you.”
It is in this backdrop of deletion and addition of voters in the electoral rolls, the SIR for Bihar is being opposed tooth and nail by the opposition political parties. Both inside and outside of the Parliament of India, the INDIA bloc parties are opposing SIR for Bihar, and demonstrating against it. Similar is the situation in Bihar, where INDIA bloc parties are protesting inside and outside the Vidhan Sabha. Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha, and Vidhan Sabha have witnessed several protests, disruptions, and adjournments for the last four days.
Nevertheless, ECI has declared its intention to conduct SIR for all the states, and it has already activated its machinery for this purpose. Next target is believed to be West Bengal, where the elections will be held next year. CM Mamata Banerjee has threatened that it would not be allowed in West Bengal.
According to the data released by the ECI on the eve of the deadline for submission of the elector forms and documents, 99 per cent electors have already been covered. They have found 21.6 lakh deceased electors, 31.5 lakh electors who have permanently migrated, 7 lakh electors registered at more than one place, 1 lakh electors are untraceable, and forms of fewer than 7 lakh electors still not received.
The Draft Electoral Roll will be published on August 1, and the copies will be provided to 12 political parties. Claims on missing names and objection on wrong inclusion will be accepted till September 1, and the final Revised Electoral Roll will be published on September 30. Days after publication of the final electoral roll, elections will be announced so that it could be completed before the expiration of the Bihar Vidhan Sabha on November 22. Once the election process starts, the electors whose name will be deleted, will not get even legal opportunity for redressal.
The Supreme Court of India will be hearing the bunch of petitions against the SIR on July 28, just three days after the submission deadline of July 25. The Bench hearing the case had urged the ECI to consider Aadhaar card, ration card, and Electors Photo Identity Card as proof, which the ECI did not accept.
INDIA bloc, which is known as Mahagathbandhan in Bihar led by RJD, has already started their campaign at every constituency in Bihar against the SIR and to examine the electoral roll. In reply to a question, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, has said that they could consider even boycott of the election. Congress has said that all options are open for them.
BJP has raised the Bangladeshi pitch, and vowed that no Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrator will be enrolled in the voter list. ECI has already said that they have found a large number of illegal Bangladeshi and Nepali immigrants in the voter list. It is worth recalling here the same ECI had got only 1.5 thousand applications in the last electoral roll revision between October 29, 2024 and January 6, 2025. According to an official of the ECI, only “few such objections were confirmed as genuine.”
The opposition has said that the forms of large number of Muslims, Dalits, and OBCs were intentionally not submitted and kept separate as doubtful only to prevent them in participating in voting. The BJP suspect them that they are not their voters, the opposition leaders claimed, which can tilt the election result in BJP’s favour.
Congress leader in-charge of Bihar Krishna Allavaru has alleged that ECI officials did not follow the process of verification of voters, and the certificates they are demanding are not even in people’s possession. And the documents that people possess, such as Aadhaar, Ration Card, and Voter ID card are not accepted by the ECI. He alleged that “this process is to steal votes and the election.” Opposition INDIA bloc parties see SIR as threat to parliamentary democracy not only in Bihar but also for India.
Another emerging threat relates to backdoor implementation of National Register for Citizenship (NRC), detention of the deleted voters, and creation of large number of stateless people, since not country would accept them if not proven their citizen. Pushing them at gunpoint into other countries, and again pushed by them into India will create a great humanitarian crisis. Onus has been shifted to people to give proof of citizenship, though the Union Ministry of Home itself is not able to prove that they were not India’s citizen.
Supreme Court of India will have to see the issue in larger perspective than merely a case of making a list of voters for Bihar. In the last hearing, the Bench has said that determining citizenship in not under jurisdiction of ECI, but under Union Ministry of Home. Nevertheless, ECI ignored every suggestion of the Supreme Court and behaved as law unto itself. Country is waiting for the Supreme Court hearing on July 28. (IPA Service)
