Protests erupted across Bihar on Wednesday against the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls even as the Supreme Court agreed to hear one more plea challenging the poll panel’s move.

Top leaders of the opposition Mahagathbandhan, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, converged in Patna for the protests.

The INDIA bloc, of which the Mahagathbandhan is a part, is supporting the Bharat Bandh called in protest against the four labour codes, but in Bihar the Opposition coalition has chosen to also highlight its reservations against the Election Commission’s move, which threatens to disenfranchise crores of voters with barely months to go for the Bihar Assembly elections.

The RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, The CPI’s D. Raja, the CPM’s M.A. Baby and the CPI(ML)’s Dipankar Bhattacharya joined Rahul Gandhi in a giant procession that started from the Income Tax crossing in the Bihar capital, a stone’s throw from landmarks such as Patna High Court and offices of many political parties.

The leaders stood atop an open vehicle amid a vast sea of workers of the parties as the crowd marched to the Election Commission's office, about one-and-half kilometres away.

The administration had put up barricades in front of the Vidhan Sabha premises near the EC office, where the leaders addressed the gathering.

Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission "comprising persons nominated by the BJP" of "serving" the party in power and not the people.

He accused the poll panel of trying to "replicate the Maharashtra model" in Bihar by tampering with the electoral rolls.

Rahul had blamed what he called manipulation of electoral rolls for the unexpected landslide victory of the BJP-led coalition in the Maharashtra Assembly polls months after the BJP-led coalition was thrashed in the Lok Sabha elections.

Patna on Wednesday also witnessed attempts to block rail and road traffic in several parts, including the Sachivalay Railway Halt, where Independent MP from Purnea Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, a Congress supporter, had reached in the morning.

"The EC has hatched a conspiracy to deprive people, mostly Dalits and other vulnerable sections, of their voting rights," alleged Pappu , whose constituency is in the Seemanchal region which the BJP alleges is teeming with "illegal immigrants" from Bangladesh and Myanmar, accommodated by parties with an eye on "vote bank".

Burning tyres were seen on highways in several parts of Bihar, throwing traffic out of gear in districts such as Muzaffarpur, Nawada, Arwal, Jehanabad and Darbhanga. In many of these districts, the demonstrations were led by local MLAs belonging to RJD, Congress and the three Left parties.

A massive traffic snarl was also witnessed on the Mahatma Gandhi Setu, the nearly six-km-long bridge across the Ganga, where burning tyres had been placed in the morning, bringing to a grinding halt the movement of light and heavy vehicles alike.

One more petition in Supreme Court

A Supreme Court bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Wednesday agreed to take up the plea of two activists against the Election Commission’s move on July 10 along with other pending petitions after advocate Vrinda Grover mentioned it for urgent listing.

Grover said the plea, filed by Arshad Ajmal and Rupesh Kumar, challenges the ECI June 24 decision to conduct the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state and urged for listing it with other matters.

The activists have contended that the exercise undermines the principles of free and fair elections and representative democracy, both integral features of the Constitution's basic structure by introducing arbitrary, unreasonable and disproportionate documentation requirements related to birth, residence and citizenship.

They submitted that the process disproportionately burdens the poor, migrants, women and marginalised groups, for whom the vote remains a critical lever of political accountability.

The plea said that such exclusionary measures lack legal basis and risk disenfranchising large sections of the electorate and sought quashing of the ongoing SIR in Bihar as the poll panel’s order of June 24, 2025 is "unconstitutional".

On July 7, the top court agreed to hear on July 10 a batch of petitions challenging the decision of the EC to undertake special intensive revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Several fresh pleas including a joint petition by opposition parties leaders of Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party, JMM, CPI and CPI (ML) were filed in the apex court against the poll panel's decision to conduct the SIR before Bihar went to polls.

Beside separate pleas of RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K.C. Venugopal, Supriya Sule from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction, D. Raja from the CPI, Harinder Singh Malik from the Samajwadi Party, Arvind Sawant from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Sarfraz Ahmed from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have jointly moved the top court.

All leaders have challenged the Election Commission's order directing for SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar and sought direction for its quashing.

Several other civil society organisations like PUCL, NGO Association of Democratic Reforms and activists like Yogendra Yadav have moved the top court against the EC order.

(With agency inputs)