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'Puppet in hands of government': Kapil Sibal, AAP, RJD slam EC over Bihar voter list revision

Sibal raised the concern that deleting names of marginalised groups from electoral rolls could fundamentally alter the democratic process

Kapil Sibal PTI

Our Web Desk
Published 13.07.25, 02:27 PM

The Election Commission is busy carrying out a rare, large-scale revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, and a chorus of Opposition voices has accused the poll body of playing handmaiden to the ruling BJP.

“The Election Commission has always been a puppet in the hands of the Modi government,” Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal told PTI, questioning the constitutionality of the exercise. He alleged that each election commissioner has been outdoing the previous one “in his alignment to this government.”

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On the SIR process itself, Sibal said, “This is according to me a completely unconstitutional process that is being carried on. The Commission doesn't have the jurisdiction to decide issues of citizenship and that also by a block level officer.”

“I have been saying that they (BJP) adopt all possible means to somehow win elections. In fact, this whole particular process of a special intensive revision is a process to ensure majoritarian governments for all times to come,” he added.

Sibal raised the concern that deleting names of marginalised groups from electoral rolls could fundamentally alter the democratic process. “This is the intent because if you delete the names of the poor people, the marginalised, the adivasis, you will ensure that the majoritarian party always wins. So this is yet another way of ensuring that and this is very worrisome,” he said.

Sibal reiterated his long-standing doubts about the EC’s independence. “The institution has not reflected that independence that was expected of them,” he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also weighed in on the issue, questioning the validity and transparency of the ongoing review.

In a post on X, the party asked: “Is the Election Commission, in collusion with the BJP, murdering democracy in Bihar? The voter forms being submitted and uploaded in Bihar lack a lot of information. The Election Commission claims that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is being conducted under the law, but there is no such thing happening at the ground level. Employees are submitting forms that are incomplete and lack information.”

The remarks came amid the EC’s statement that a “large number of people” from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar have been found during house-to-house verification visits in Bihar. The officials claimed that names of illegal migrants would not be included in the final electoral roll to be published on September 30, after further inquiries from August 1.

To this, RJD MP Manoj Jha asked, “If they are there, then who is responsible? Who is the Home Minister of the country? Foreign nationals are living here. Even before the draft of the rules is prepared, these planted stories are sowing the seeds of hatred. Do not exaggerate this issue.”

Congress leader Charan Singh Sapra added to the concerns, pointing at what he described as a pattern.

“The way ECI has worked in last 4-5 elections, there have been doubts that the government and the ECI are hand in gloves. We saw last few elections, and now the SIR exercise in Bihar. We asked question, they did not answer," Sapra said.

"We asked for voter lists of past elections, they are not giving. Is it an ECI, or a dictator. We are going to people's court now. If they will do it in Assam, we will oppose,” he added.

The EC, however, maintains that the revision is a routine exercise meant to clean up the electoral rolls, last conducted 22 years ago in Bihar, to eliminate duplicate entries and ineligible names, and include those who are eligible under the law.

The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar, Voter ID, and ration cards as valid documents during the SIR, but has not yet passed a final verdict. Sibal, who is among the counsels in the case, declined to comment on the interim order. “Whatever the court has said will be taken into account hopefully by the EC itself. So that we don't have this controversy moving forward,” he said.

As Bihar heads towards elections later this year, the controversy around the SIR appears far from over. With the Monsoon session of Parliament approaching, Sibal noted that the issue is perhaps “more significant than any other issue being talked about today.”

Kapil Sibal Aam Aadmi Party
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