The Election Commission on Sunday said it had achieved the aims of the special intensive revision (SIR) and would soon announce the procedure to appeal against the addition or deletion of names relating to Bihar’s draft electoral rolls, to be published on August 1.
The commission’s statement, a day before the Supreme Court hears multiple petitions against the SIR, did not reveal how many new voters had been added. It reaffirmed that the poll panel had shared the deleted names with the political parties.
However, five INDIA bloc parties on Sunday claimed they had not received the deleted names.
Several Opposition parties and civil rights groups have petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the SIR as unconstitutional, saying its document-centric approach would disenfranchise many poor, marginalised and less-educated citizens.
Launched on June 25 — about five months before the term of Bihar’s Assembly ends — the SIR has been criticised for putting the onus on voters to prove their citizenship, on the strength of their personal and parental documents.
There have been complaints of arbitrariness by enrolment officials in a hurry to meet the July 25 deadline to collect the enumeration forms, filled in by prospective voters.
One of the reasons for launching the SIR, the poll panel had said on June 24, was the “inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants” in the current electoral rolls.
Under the SIR, the Election Commission had instructed electoral registration officers (EROs) to “refer cases of suspected foreign nationals to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act”.
Sunday’s statement from the commission, however, made no mention of any such cases. The 65 lakh names deleted include the dead, those enrolled in multiple places in Bihar, and those who have permanently shifted or have not been found. The statement puts 36 lakh voters in the third category.
The poll panel merely hinted at the illegal immigration angle in connection with this third category.
“BLO (booth-level officers) did not find these electors or did not get back their Enumeration Forms because they: Became electors in other States/ UTs, or Were not found in existence, or Did not submit the form till 25 July, or Were not willing to register as an elector for some reason or other (Para iv of Enumeration Form at Page 17 of SIR order refers),” the statement said.
“Exact status of these electors will be known after scrutiny of these forms by ERO/ AERO by 1st August 2025. However, genuine electors can still be added back in electoral rolls during the Claims and Objection period from 1st August to 1st September 2025.”
Para iv of the enumeration form refers to a declaration by a voter of their awareness that making a false declaration in the form — which collects citizenship information as well — is a punishable offence.
Data shared by the poll panel on Sunday shows that only 16 lakh among Bihar’s 7.89 crore voters (the number in the existing rolls) had submitted their enumeration forms online, and another 13 lakh downloaded the forms to submit them in person to BLOs.
The 2011 population census showed that more than 7 per cent of Bihar’s population had migrated outside the state, a proportion higher than any other state in India.
Ads for migrant enrolment in the electoral rolls were published in 246 newspapers, and all state chief electoral officers were asked to reach out to temporary migrants from Bihar under their jurisdiction.
The SIR has shrunk Bihar’s electorate to 7.24 crore.
Poll commission data shows that the BJP had the highest number of booth-level agents (BLAs) in Bihar, both before and after the SIR. They were followed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal United.
However, even the BJP with its 53,338 BLAs did not have a BLA in every polling booth area. Bihar has 77,895 booths.
The AAP, which has said it will contest all the seats in Bihar, has only one registered BLA in the state.
The poll panel reiterated: “By 20th July 2025, CEO/ DEOs/ EROs/ BLOs shared, with political parties, the booth-level lists of electors who were reported as deceased electors, or whose Enumeration Forms were not received, or who were reported to be permanently migrated or could not be traced with the objective of requesting them to inquire about such electors in a focused manner.”
It added: “Subsequently, after noticing the efforts of the political parties, such updated lists were again shared with the representatives of political parties.”