Tejashwi Yadav Ups the Ante, Says ECI has Hurt Bihari Pride by Asking Voters to Prove Citizenship

The Wire

a day ago

With Yadav turning the ECI's attempt to revise electoral rolls as an affront to Bihari pride, the controversy now appears set to become one of the biggest polarised political debates in the run-up to the assembly polls.
Bihar leader of opposition and the RJD's chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav. Photo: PTI
New Delhi: Days after an INDIA bloc delegation accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of being hostile towards their concerns over the hurried exercise to revise electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, the state's leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav who is also the chief ministerial face of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), on Friday (July 4) termed the 'Special Intensive Revision' (SIR) as an attack on Bihari identity.
Yadav said that by singling out Bihar residents for a 'citizenship' test, the ECI has hurt the state and its people's pride.
'In the whole country, only Biharis, each and every Bihari, have been forced to prove their citizenship? Why should only Biharis and Bihar have to prove their citizenship,' an aggressive Yadav asked.
Yadav asks whether the current electoral rolls are 'fake'
'It doesn't matter if you are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, or belong to forward, backward, Dalit or extremely backward castes, everyone in Bihar will have to prove their Indian citizenship,' Yadav said.
With Yadav turning the ECI's attempt to revise electoral rolls as an affront to Bihari pride, the controversy now appears set to become one of the biggest polarised political debates in the run-up to the assembly polls.
Yadav asked whether the current electoral rolls were 'fake', and if the ECI believes that it was indeed 'fake', then elections held in Bihar before 2025 should also be declared fraudulent.
He said that apart from the poor, around 4.5 crore migrants from Bihar also stand to lose their voting rights as a result of the SIR. He said that even if people now engage themselves in getting their lost documents, it will only encourage corruption and bribery at the regional level.
Yadav said that the ECI's decision to conduct a 'Special Intensive Revision', an exercise to revise electoral rolls only months ahead of the assembly polls is a 'big conspiracy'.
हर बिहारी, केवल बिहारी ही अपनी नागरिकता का सबूत देगा।
जबकि इसी वोटर लिस्ट से 2024 का मतदान हुआ है। अगर ये लिस्ट फर्ज़ी है, तो सरकार भी फर्ज़ी हुई!
आख़िर क्यों केवल बिहारी और बिहार अपनी नागरिकता साबित करे? ये बड़ी साज़िश है।
- श्री @yadavtejashwi! #TejashwiYadav #Bihar pic.twitter.com/JSXNycXbkD
— Office of Tejashwi Yadav (@TejashwiOffice) July 4, 2025
He appealed to people of Bihar to strengthen the INDIA bloc to take on the forces 'who wish to end the Constitutional rule, who want to remove people from voters' list, and those who want to end democracy itself'.
On Wednesday (July 3, 2025), a 20-member delegation from INDIA bloc met the election commissioners, including the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in New Delhi to voice their concerns about SIR.
The INDIA bloc led by RJD, Congress, and the Left told the ECI that the limited time frame to conduct such an exercise may lead to 'mass disenfranchisement' of nearly 1 crore voters of Bihar. After the meeting, they said that the ECI officials were hostile towards their concerns, and had termed their interaction with the poll body as 'disappointing' and 'unfriendly'.
Earlier, they had expressed concerns over logistical problems like poor availability of birth certificates among a large section of people, high migration rates and a historical crisis in documentation process in the state that could lead to a chaotic situation in the run-up to the assembly polls.
According to the ECI, the SIR will help it identify 'illegal immigrants' and non-permanent residents of Bihar. It has announced that people will have to show documents and identity proof other than Aadhar, EPIC voters cards, and ration cards to become eligible voters. In such circumstances, birth certificates of people and their parents as proof of their places of birth, matriculation certificates, land records, or other property documents will be accepted.
However, several ground reports have already said that in a state like Bihar with poor literacy rates, high school dropout rates, extreme landlessness, and all-round poverty, the SIR could lead to further problems than addressing loopholes in the electoral rolls.
Given how the INDIA bloc is now upping its ante and taking on the ECI with aggression, the SIR is set to become the talking point in the run-up to the assembly polls, and may become a polarising issue. The opposition will likely battle it out with greater intensity on the electoral ground surely but it remains to be seen how the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituents like Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United), Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, or Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha respond.
Most of the NDA parties, including the BJP, have maintained conspicuous silence on the matter until now, although it is clear that the SIR may also affect their voter base. However, Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) leader Upendra Kushwaha, who is also an ally of the BJP- NDA in Bihar has raised concerns about SIR. Kushwaha has said that it should be ensured by the ECI that no genuine voter is left out from the voter list.
The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.