Datanomics: Migration overtakes death for voter deletion in Bihar SIR

The Supreme Court on August 14 directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish a booth-wise list of 6.5 million voters proposed to be excluded from Bihar’s electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).  The last SIR in Bihar was held in 2003. Between 2008-09 and 2024-25, the ECI conducted 17 Special Summary Revisions (SSRs), typically from October to December, using January 1 as the qualifying date. These revisions removed 9.4 million voters, with 1.7 million and 1.6 million deletions in 2009-10 and 2023-24, respectively. 

  The current SIR would surpass previous records if all the deletions proposed are effected, removing 8.2 per cent of the electorate from the electoral roll of Bihar. However, the SIR is supposed to be more rigorous than SSRs.  Bihar’s SIR recorded the highest proposed exclusion in comparison to SSR 

In 2009-10, about 1.7 million electors were deleted, a number that fell to 188,034 in 2015-16, but it rose again to 1.6 million in 2023-24. For 2025-26, the figure is set to surge to 6.5 million, potentially the highest deletion in recent history.   

Death is the common reason for exclusion  

Over the past five years, death was the most common reason for voter exclusion, whereas in the 2025 SIR, migration has overtaken death as the leading cause.

 

 

Male dominated the exclusion in the deletion process 

 

Between 2010-11 and 2024-25, more male voters than female voters were excluded from the SSRs in each five-year period.