As the deadline approaches for enumeration form submissions in Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has reported that approximately 56 lakh voters have already been struck off the electoral rolls as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). This figure represents over 7% of Bihar's total electorate of 7.9 crore, as recorded on June 24, 2025.
The ECI's action has triggered a political storm, with opposition parties alleging a conspiracy to reduce their voter base. They accuse the ECI of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to target poor and minority voters. Furious Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from parties like Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, and Left parties have protested against the decision.
The removed voters fall into several categories. Around 20 lakh are reported as deceased, over 28 lakh have permanently shifted their residence, approximately 7.5 lakh are enrolled at multiple places, and about one lakh are "not traceable". Additionally, a further 15 lakh voters did not return verification forms.
The ECI has defended its actions, stating that the SIR is a routine pre-election verification process aimed at cleaning up the voters list before the elections. The commission insists that it is only removing the names of voters who are dead, duplicate, or have migrated. The ECI also argues that Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards, or ration cards are not sufficient proof of citizenship and that physical verification is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the electoral rolls. This involves door-to-door visits by booth-level officers who interact with voters or their families to verify their citizenship, age, and residency.
The removal of 56 lakh voters translates to an average of 23,045 voters per constituency in Bihar. The opposition argues that even a 1% purge of names from the existing list would be unacceptable. In the 2020 election, the RJD lost 52 seats by margins of 5,000 or fewer votes, and 40 by margins of 3,500 or fewer.
The ECI has stated that the final electoral roll will be published on September 30, after due process of claims and objections, to ensure that no eligible citizen is excluded and no ineligible one is included. The poll body has also informed the Supreme Court that all major political parties were involved in the SIR exercise and deployed over 1.5 lakh booth-level agents to reach out to eligible voters.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter on July 28. In the meantime, the ECI has claimed success, stating that Bihar will now be the first state in India where every polling booth will have fewer than 1,200 voters, which should ease the voting process on election day.