INDIA bloc calls Bihar electoral revision ‘votebandi’, tells Election Commission lakhs could lose voting rights
M.U.H
03/07/202539
Opposition parties on Wednesday told the Election Commission of India (ECI) that its decision to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections would disproportionately affect marginalised communities and risk the deletion of genuine voters.
Leaders from 11 INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, RJD, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML)-Liberation, NCP-SP, and the Samajwadi Party, met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other officials at Nirvachan Sadan, submitting a joint representation opposing the move.
“The methodology, timeline, and process prescribed for the SIR is guaranteed to ensure a disastrous result that will result in the deletion of tens of lakhs of genuine voters, especially those at the margins of society,” the parties said in the representation.
The opposition slammed the ECI for introducing “complex and burdensome rules requiring voters to submit their and their parents’ birth certificates, based on their year of birth,” describing the requirements as “arbitrary, inconsistent, and an unfair burden on the estimated 8.1 crore eligible voters in Bihar in 2025.”
They also raised questions about the Commission’s policy of exempting only those whose names appeared on the electoral rolls in 2003.
“The Election Commission has purportedly taken the position that individuals whose names appeared in the electoral rolls as of the year 2003 are exempt from the requirement of re-enrolment, while those not listed therein must undergo the process anew. It is submitted that this classification lacks clarity and legal justification,” the representation stated.
Calling the exercise “a misleading and questionable measure masquerading as a corrective step,” the INDIA bloc warned that it could result in targeted disenfranchisement.
“It effectively hands over control to lakhs of state and central government officials, who will now determine who has valid documents and who does not, and ultimately who can and cannot vote in Bihar. This opens the door to the deliberate exclusion of voters through the misuse of administrative authority,” the representation added.
CPI(ML) says EC gave no clear answers, claims poor will struggle to prove citizenship
After the meeting, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said their concerns over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls had only intensified, as the delegation did not receive any satisfactory answers from the Election Commission.
“We said the poor will not have these documents. They said those who are in the 2003 voters' list will be presumed to be citizens of India, the rest will have to prove their citizenship to the EC,” he said.
“We said this reminds people of Bihar of ‘notebandi’, and it is being called ‘votebandi’ (disenfranchisement) in Bihar,” he added.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, joined by RJD MP Manoj Jha, said, “A minimum of two crore persons may be disenfranchised in this exercise as many, especially the SCs, STs, migratory and impoverished among the nearly eight crore voters in Bihar may not be in a position to present their and their parents' birth certificates to the poll authorities in such a short period.”
Singhvi also expressed concern over the lack of legal remedy, saying that voters may not be able to challenge deletions once elections are announced. “They would not be able to challenge the removal of their names from the electoral rolls as polls would begin by then, and courts do not hear challenges when elections are underway,” he said.
He further questioned the rationale behind the exercise. “We asked the EC that the last revision was in 2003, and for 22 years after, 4–5 elections have happened. Were all those elections faulty or imperfect or unreliable? The SIR was held one year before general elections and two years before assembly elections,” Singhvi added.
