The Congress has alleged the selective deletion of women voters' names during the special intensive revision of rolls in seats that witnessed close contests in previous Bihar elections.

"It has been revealed (in news reports) that 22.7 lakh women in Bihar have been denied the right to vote. The total number of women voters in Bihar is 3.5 crore. The deletions amount to 6.28 per cent of women voters," All India Mahila Congress chief Alka Lamba told reporters here on Sunday.

Lamba focused on six districts that have allegedly witnessed the highest number of deletions of women voters from the electoral rolls.

These six districts are Gopalganj, Madhubani, Purvi Champaran, Saran, Bhagalpur and Patna, which together have 59 Assembly seats.

“In 2020, the Mahagathbandhan won 25 (of these) seats and the NDA 34. We had close contests there, and it was here that victory or defeat was made,” Lamba said.

“...I am saying it clearly that among these 23 lakh women, and we are reconfirming this, votes of mostly Dalit and Muslim women have been cancelled — those who were openly saying that they are not going to vote for the BJP or the NDA this time.”

Lamba said the party would send its women leaders to the constituencies to identify those whose names had been deleted.

“We will make them aware, bring them to the polling stations and ensure they are not deprived of their right to vote. Our effort is to create a dedicated unit in each constituency solely focused on women voters and women’s issues,” she said.

At a news conference in Patna on Sunday, chief election commissioner Gynaesh Kumar was asked about the SIR skewing the voter sex ratio in favour of men.

“In the enumeration process, enumeration forms were given to everyone, whether they were our respected women or our respected men,” Kumar said.

“Even today, if any voter, whether male or female, has been left out or the name of an ineligible person has been included, then if you submit Form 7 or Form 6 to the ERO (electoral registration officer) 10 days before the nomination date, the corrections can be made.”

Kumar avoided questions on how foreign nationals, whose identification was one of the goals of the SIR, got into the voter list.