Stop SIR in Bihar, refrain from ‘institutional arrogance', says INDIA bloc
Speaking at a joint press conference, along with Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML-L) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Nilotpal Basu, Congress Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi said it was not an issue of 'political obstinacy' or 'institutional arrogance'. 'I humbly urge the Election Commission... it is not a matter of political obstinacy or institutional arrogance. Please reconsider it...everyone is urging you,' Mr. Singhvi said.
VIDEO | On SIR exercise in Bihar, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) says, "If it is wrong in Bihar, then it is wrong in the entire country. Exclusion of 60 lakhs is not even a trailer, they will exclude more. Citizenship is the main agenda..."#SIR… pic.twitter.com/12WUjpOKoA — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 27, 2025
About 10 elections had been held after 2003 and till then, all the ID cards had been valid throughout. 'In that case, what was the urgency in initiating the process in June-July, link it to an election,' he said, adding that the exercise could have been undertaken after yet another election (Bihar). The attempt to squeeze the entire process within two-three months was resulting in several errors, Mr. Singhvi said.
Stating that the SIR had become a process of establishing citizenship, Mr. Singhvi asked if the Election Commission was authorised to do so. He cited a 1995 Supreme Court judgment to say that detailed legal provisions should be followed to take away anyone's citizenship.
Mr. Bhattacharya said the EC's 'self-congratulatory' statements were confirming the INDIA bloc party's apprehensions. After the process started, the number of possible deletions from the voters' list kept increasing, and now it was about 65 lakh, he said. The Opposition parties had flagged concerns over about two crore alleged deletions.
'The EC has made one very misleading and false claim that it has shared this with the political parties. We have received block-level data about pending enumeration forms, which were not submitted...had the details been shared with us, we could have cross-checked them before the draft was prepared...,' Mr. Bhattacharya said, stating that no door-to-door visits had been made during the EC's exercise. He also asked whether the EC's summary revision held in January 2025 was wrong, and if the claim of 22 lakh deaths was correct.
Describing it as the biggest exercise of 'disenfranchisement since Independence', Mr. Jha said the EC had not consulted political parties on the SIR. The people whose names would be deleted were not being given the right to appeal. 'Opacity has become the hallmark of your (the EC's) functioning,' he said.
No consultation with political parties had been carried out before initiating the SIR exercise, Mr. Basu said. He sought details of the survey on the basis of which the process was being carried out.
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Hindustan Times
6 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
EC junks Tejashwi Yadav's claim that his name missing from draft Bihar electoral rolls
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday firmly refuted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav's claim that his name was missing from the draft electoral rolls, calling the allegation 'baseless' and releasing documentary proof showing his voter details intact. Leader of Opposition and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav addressing during Nai Parivar Adhikar Mahasammelan at S.K. Memorial hall in Patna, Bihar.(HT Photo) Yadav, who is the Leader of Opposition in Bihar, had earlier in the day claimed at a press conference that he was unable to find his name in the rolls published as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process ahead of the assembly polls. Connecting his phone to a large screen, he demonstrated an online search for his EPIC number that returned 'no records found.' 'Now look! I am myself not registered as a voter. This disqualifies me from contesting elections. Perhaps, I cease to be treated as a citizen and stand deprived of the right to live in this house,' Yadav said. The Election Commission responded by releasing a copy of the draft rolls showing Yadav's name, photograph, and details at serial number 416. Officials confirmed that the EPIC number Yadav used to contest elections in 2015 and 2020 — RAB0456228 — remains valid and is reflected in the latest electoral roll published on August 1. In contrast, a second EPIC number used by Yadav in his search — RAB2916120 — was found to be invalid. 'More than ten years of records have been checked. There is no trace of this second EPIC number. It is likely it was never issued officially, and we are now looking into whether it is forged,' an ECI source said. Yadav also alleged that the booth-level officer who visited his residence failed to provide a receipt after collecting his filled-up form. 'I had even clicked a picture while submitting it,' he said, adding that such lapses raise serious questions about the integrity of the process. Highlighting the importance of digital access, he remarked, 'Would you expect someone living outside Bihar to physically verify their name in the rolls? If someone like me is affected, what chance does a common citizen have? Even an IAS couple has reportedly found their names missing.'
Indian Express
6 minutes ago
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Voter deletions in Bihar draft rolls: 4 lakhs in Patna district to 26,256 in Sheikhpura
Bihar's draft electoral rolls published by the Election Commission (EC) as part of its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise shows that more than 65 lakh voters have been dropped, which include about 22 lakh deceased, 7 lakh enrolled at multiple places, and 36 lakh electors who have either migrated permanently or were untraceable. Of the existing 7.89 crore voters as on June 24, 2025, when the EC announced the countrywide SIR starting with Bihar, 7.24 crore voters submitted their enumeration forms, according to the poll body. An analysis of the poll-bound state's draft electoral rolls indicates that the top 10 districts reporting maximum number of deletion of voters include Patna (3,95,500 voters), Madhubani (3,52,545), East Champaran (3,16,793), Gopalganj (3,10,363), Samastipur (2,83,955), Muzaffarpur (2,82,845), Saran (2,73,223), Gaya (2,45,663), Vaishali (2,25,953), and Darbhanga (2,03,315). The 10 districts which have seen lowest voter deletions include Sheikhpura (26,256), Sheohar (28,166), Arwal (30,180), Lakhisarai (48,824) Jahanabad (53,089), Kaimur (73,940), Munger (74,916), Khagaria (79,551), Buxar (87,645), and Jamui (91,882). 'Those who have grievances can approach electoral officers for any claims and objections to be submitted between August 1 and September 1,' said an EC official. The Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region in east Bihar has seen 2,73,920 voters deleted from Purnea district, 1,58,072 from Araria, 1,45,668 from Kishanganj, and 1,84,254 from Katihar. The AIMIM's Bihar spokesperson Adil Hasan Azad told The Indian Express: 'We have been creating awareness among the Seemanchal voters about the SIR process. The booth level agents (BLAs) of the Opposition parties have been also active on ground. Voters of this region have applied for residential certificates in bigger number than other places as many people did not have other documents out of the 11 sought by the EC for the SIR (for those whose names were not on the 2003 voters' list).' The RJD-led Opposition Mahagathbandhan said they would closely track the SIR's second phase of claims and objections to see if it has followed 'due process of voter deletions'. RJD leader and Buxar MP Sudhakar Singh said: 'We have serious doubts on EC's pruning of electoral rolls. We will soon get the numbers of claims and objections from voters, which could be overwhelming. Our BLAs are on the job.' CPI (ML) Liberation office secretary Kumar Parvez told The Indian Express: 'We are holding public hearings. We are also getting calls from some migrants who have not shifted permanently. By mid-August, we would get to know whether the EC has deleted a significant number of genuine voters as well.' The Mahagathbandhan has slammed the EC for not sharing the list of the 65 lakh deleted voters. Several electors have complained about their names being excluded from the draft rolls despite submitting their enumeration forms. As the EC has increased the number of booths, many voters have been shifted to booths different from their exiting ones, leading to their scramble in search of their names in the rolls. A section of them are also meeting their booth level officers (BLOs) to check the physical list. Kumar Parvez said, 'EC did not agree to share with us the list of dead and permanently shifted. It is humongous task for BLAs to cross-check voters in each booth on basis of draft rolls. The EC has put the onus on us. Those left out from the rolls would have a harrowing time during the claims and objection period'. RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari echoed his views, saying 'We are going to hold jan sunvai (public hearing) soon to compile voters' grievances'. RJD leader and Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, while addressing a press conference in Patna Saturday, claimed that he could not find his name in the rolls by using his voter card (EPIC) number. Subsequently, the Patna district administration issued a statement, pointing out that his name is listed as a voter 'in polling station no. 204 in Bihar Animal Science University's Library Building (in the Digha Assembly segment), at serial number 416', which, it added, was previously listed 'in polling station no. 171 in Bihar Animal Science University's Library Building, at serial number 481'. EC sources said, 'Tejaswi Prasad Yadav used electoral roll with EPIC no. RAB0456228 for filing his nomination papers on affidavit in 2020. His name is there in the draft electoral rolls… His baseless argument that his name was removed has already been refuted.' EC sources also said, 'He (Tejashwi) was having this EPIC number even in the electoral roll in 2015… The other EPIC number RAB2916120 (cited by Tejashwi) has been found to be non-existing. More than ten years old records have been checked. No records have been found for the second EPIC number yet. It is highly likely that the second EPIC was never made through official channel. Further inquiries are on to understand the reality of the second EPIC number, whether that is a forged document.'
India.com
6 minutes ago
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No Objections Filed On Day One Of Bihar's Draft Voter List: EC
Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday said that not a single claim or objection has been filed by any political party in the first 24 hours of the publication of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar. From August 1st (3 PM) till August 2nd (3 PM), all political parties put together, have filed 'Zero' claims and objections for the addition of the names of eligible electors and deletion of the names of ineligible electors, said the poll panel in a press note. ECI released the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on Friday afternoon, following the completion of the Enumeration Phase under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2025. It said the public has one month to submit claims and objections, assuring that "no name will be removed from the draft voter list without a stated reason." The draft list, covering all 243 Assembly Constituencies and 90,712 polling booths, was shared with all political parties by the 38 District Election Officers (DEOs) across the state. The ECI in a press note said, "As per SIR order, after the completion of the Enumeration Phase from 24 June to 25 July 2025, the draft Electoral Rolls have been published for Bihar on 1 August 2025." A detailed list of electors whose names appeared in the June 24 rolls but were missing in the new draft was also shared with political parties for cross-verification. Additionally, 1.60 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) nominated by District Presidents of 12 political parties actively participated in the process on the ground. The commission enabled electors to verify their names through the official link using their EPIC numbers. They were also allowed to file claims and objections for inclusion or deletion of names through the same portal. In a drive to ensure accurate and updated voter identity cards, the ECI urged all voters to submit new photographs to their Booth Level Officers (BLOs) by September 1, 2025. ECI today announced that it will double the remuneration for Booth Level Officers (BLOs), enhance remuneration for BLO Supervisors, and provide honorarium to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs). As per SIR orders, no name can be deleted from the draft list published on 1st August, 2025 without passing a speaking order by the ERO/AERO after conducting an enquiry and after giving a fair and reasonable opportunity.
