Nearly 95% of Bihar voters covered in electoral roll revision exercise: ECI

According to the ECI, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will publish the draft Electoral Roll on Friday, August 1 and invite suggestions

The Election Commission of India has said that 94.68 per cent of the existing electors have submitted their enumeration forms during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

According to the ECI, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will publish the draft Electoral Roll on Friday, August 1, 2025, and invite suggestions and inputs for correcting any entries in the draft Electoral Roll.

"In accordance with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) order dated June 24, 2025, a one-month window will be provided to submit requests for rectification or inclusion of any left-out names," the ECI said in a release.

"During the verification process, a total of 36,86,971 electors, amounting to 4.67 per cent, were found to be missing from their registered addresses. Within this category, 12,71,414 electors were classified as probably deceased, 18,36,306 as probably permanently shifted, 5,92,273 were found to be enrolled at multiple places, and 6,978 electors could not be traced," it said.

As per the ECI, based on the enumeration data and findings from the address verification process, a total of 7,48,59,631 electors have been covered so far, which translates to 94.68 per cent of the overall electoral population. The remaining number of Enumeration Forms yet to be received is 41,10,213, accounting for 5.2 per cent of the total.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday once again raised concern over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls carried out in poll-bound Bihar after former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa criticised the state's electoral roll revision by the Election Commission of India.

"The Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll is a deliberate and diabolical move to rig the elections through large-scale disenfranchisement. A PM who masterminded notebandi has orchestrated this votebandi," Ramesh posted on X while sharing a recent interview of Lavasa.

Lavasa earlier in an interview to a media outlet criticised the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, calling it "abrupt, aggressive, ambitious, and avoidable".

He said that the process is unfair to voters and the machinery undertaking the task, arguing that it's not the Election Commission's job to verify citizenship. This move may lead to large-scale disenfranchisement, particularly affecting vulnerable communities.

Lavasa emphasised that demanding citizenship proof from voters is not the Election Commission's responsibility. Instead, it's the government's duty to issue citizenship documents.

He said that the SIR process may lead to the exclusion of eligible voters, particularly from marginalized communities, which could impact the democratic process.Lavasa argued that the sudden change in procedure is unfair to both voters and the electoral machinery. He suggested that the Election Commission's established process has worked well for 75 years, and there's no need to alter it now.