The Congress late on Thursday evening laid out in detail why it opposes the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of this year's Assembly polls, alleging that the poll panel’s move carries the risk of willful exclusion of voters using the state machinery.

The Congress's empowered action group of leaders and experts, aka EAGLE, said the revision of electoral rolls by the EC is a cure worse than the disease.

K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary, organisation, shared the statement on X and said, "The INC opposes the devious Special Intensive Revision exercise ordered by the ECI for Bihar."

By undertaking the revision in Bihar and some other states, the EC has admitted that all is not well with India's electoral rolls, the Congress said .

The revision means that the EC will visit every single household and re-enrol every eligible voter in Bihar after a verification of identity and residential documents, the party said.

In simple terms the poll panel wants to discard the current electoral rolls entirely and create a fresh new electoral roll for the state, the Congress’s EAGLE said.

This, it said, is a clear and explicit admission by the EC that all is not well with India's electoral rolls – exactly what the Congress party and the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, have been repeatedly pointing out with evidence from Maharashtra.

The revision, the Congress said, is a “devious and dubious idea in the disguise of a solution”.

Lakhs of Union and state government officials will now control and dictate who has correct documents and who doesn't, who gets to vote in the upcoming Bihar elections, the party said.

This carries a huge risk of willful exclusion of voters using the power of the state machinery, the Congress experts and leaders said.

They said the EC has come up with arduous rules for providing birth certificates of voters and their parents, depending on the year of birth.

These rules, the Congress said, are arbitrary, whimsical and onerous on the estimated 8.1 crore eligible voters in Bihar in 2025 (as per the report of the Union ministry of health & family welfare, November 2019).

The party said the EC had mooted a proposal on March 8 for electoral roll cleaning using Aadhaar, which, while not perfect, is a more viable alternative solution than an electoral roll revision in Bihar.

Why did the EC abandon that to suddenly announce a special intensive revision (SIR) three months after the Aadhaar proposal, it asked.

Given the EC's dogged resistance to the Congress' long-pending demand for Maharashtra electoral rolls and its dubious actions in the past, the party said, there is enough reason to be suspicious about the EC's plans for a revision in Bihar just a few months before an election.

The EC has said that it will carry out an intensive review of electoral rolls this year in six states, beginning with Bihar, to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth.

Bihar is going to polls this year, while Assembly polls in five other states -- Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal -- are scheduled in 2026.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday fumed over the EC’s move in Bihar, saying it was aimed at Bengal.

“Although they said Bihar, this will be applicable in other states too. This is very concerning,” said Mamata at Digha on Thursday.

“This is where I have a problem,” she said. “For those born between 1.7.1987 and 2.12.2004, a new declaration form must be submitted along with the parents’ birth certificates to enroll their names in the voters’ list. The EC says that parents’ birth certificates must be submitted. What is going on in the name of full enumeration? From what I have studied so far, there is a lot more to this… there are many irregularities....”

The EC on Tuesday ordered Bihar’s chief electoral officer to ensure all state voters submit their enumeration forms based on which the electoral roll would be updated ahead of the Assembly polls.

Booth level officers (BLOs) will visit all homes of all voters, and check proofs of both places and dates of birth. Until now, while applying to become a voter, citizens only needed to submit proof of residence and date of birth — not place of birth.

The BLOs will also give the enumeration form, which the voter has to fill up on the spot and hand it back. This SIR exercise began on Wednesday.

Bihar’s 7.73 crore voters have until July 26 to submit enumeration forms.