Trinamool MP Saket Gokhale on Monday said the Election Commission (EC) has deleted 1.26 crore voters in Bihar from the 2024 Lok Sabha voter list, calling it an "overnight" action following the special intensive revision (SIR) conducted from June 24 to July 25.
“A total of 1.26 crore voters in Bihar whose names were on the Lok Sabha 2024 voter list just ONE year ago have been deleted from the new voter list. The number of deleted voters in Bihar during the current SIR is equal to the ENTIRE combined population of Uttarakhand PLUS Himachal Pradesh or the ENTIRE combined population of ALL 6 states of the North-East (excluding Assam),” the Rajya Sabha MP wrote on X.
Calling the details revealed by the EC "bizarre", Gokhale pointed out that of a total of 7.90 crore voters, forms have been collected from only 91.69 per cent -- 7.24 crore voters.
"This means that forms were not collected from 65 lakh voters, and they will be deleted. About 22 lakh voters (2.83 per cent) have been deleted because they're claimed to be deceased, about 36 lakh voters (4.59 per cent) have been deleted because they're claimed to be untraceable, and about 7 lakh voters (0.89 per cent) claimed to be found as duplicate entries so half i.e. 3.5 lakh entries deleted," he said.
The EC had earlier said that 22 lakh names have been marked as deceased, 7 lakh voters were found registered in more than one place, and around 35 lakh people were either untraceable or had permanently moved away
"ECI has conveniently NOT DISCLOSED how many voters were found to be non-citizens of India. This is important because ECI had claimed that the SIR was being done to remove illegal immigrants," Gokhale posted on X.
He said EC needed to answer some questions "urgently".
"The voter list was revised by ECI before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. How on earth did 1.26 crore voters become ineligible in just one year?" he said.
"How many voters has the ECI been unable to reach for collecting their forms? Under the rules of SIR, those whose forms were not collected will be deleted. Therefore, what is the total number of voters whose names have been deleted only because their forms were not collected?" he questioned.
Gokhale also alleged that the EC has not collected documents along with the forms from all 7.24 crore voters.
"Does this mean that more voters will be deleted if their documents have not been collected with their forms?" He reiterated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's statement that the SIR exercise "is NRC by the back door".
Gokhale further questioned the Modi government’s reluctance to discuss the issue in Parliament, noting Opposition MPs daily adjournment notices in the Rajya Sabha.
"When 12 million people in a single state lose the right to vote overnight, it is a SERIOUS issue. Why is the Modi Govt so scared to have an open discussion on this in Parliament?" wrote Gokhale on X.
The ongoing SIR of voters' list in Bihar has created a political row, with the Opposition INDIA bloc alleging the move aims to delete a large number of voters.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday told the Booth Level Officers to ensure not a single name is deleted from the voters list.
“The BLOs should be alert that no names aredeleted, not a single person is harassed in the electoral roll revision process,” she said while chairing an administrative review meeting at Bolpur in Birbhum district.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday said, "EC is no longer an independent institution, it’s behaving like BJP’s personal puppet, nodding to every order and bending over backwards to serve their interests. Democracy deserves better and we stand against this dangerous mockery of neutrality"
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that irregularities were taking place in the revision exercise in poll-bound Bihar.
The EC in Bihar announced on Friday that 99.8 per cent of voters in the state have been covered under the ongoing SIR exercise.
According to the chief electoral officer (CEO), forms of more than 7.23 crores voters have been received and digitised. Their names will be published on August 1, 2025.
The SIR for about 1.2 lakh is still awaited.
