EC Clarifies Bihar Voter Drive, Faces Heat from Opposition Over SIR

ECI said the SIR is going on in full steam in Bihar and as on date 1.69 crore enumeration forms, which is 21.46 per cent of the total of nearly 7.90 crore electors in Bihar who are enrolled as on June 24, 2025, have been received. In the last 24 hours 65.32 lakh forms were collected. ECI said there are still 19 days to go for the last date for submission of forms. Officials added the uploading of forms has also started simultaneously in full swing with 7.25 per cent of the forms already uploaded so far.

“People should beware of statements being made by a few persons, who without reading the SIR order dated 24 June 2025, are orchestrating and attempting to confuse the public with their `incorrect and misleading’ statements,” ECI sources said. Election officials added the process in Bihar is being implemented smoothly at the ground level. “All measures are being taken to facilitate the existing electors to complete the documentation. These existing voters will have time to submit the documents even after first submitting their Enumeration Forms,” Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar said.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Mrs Mahua Moitra has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar and seeking a stay on conducting the same in other states including West Bengal. Terming SIR as a “crazy exercise” Mrs Moitra on Sunday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of acting as the “arm of Bharatiya Janata Party executing its Machiavellian plans on ground”. She said the ECI has forgotten its Constitutional mandate to providing enabling services to citizens to exercise their franchise.

“The SIR is violative of Articles 14, 19, 21 325, 326 of the Constitution. It is also against the Representation of People’s Act 1960 and Registration of Electors Rules of which under 21A and Form 7 together with Rule 13 may give you very clear instructions on how you can delete voters. There is always an opportunity for hearing. What we see now is that 11 new documents have been put forward and these do not include Aadhar or a Voter or a Ration Card which are the main documents. This new SIR insists that you must have 11 documents and you have to prove your place of birth. Apart from a birth certificate no other document gives you a place of birth. For people born between 1987 and 2004 you have to also prove you place of birth of one of your parents and after 2004 you have to prove of both your parents. We will find that 2.5 to 3 crore people in Bihar will become disfranchised with no opportunity for hearing and the same will happen in West Bengal. This is completely against the rights of the poor, migrant workers who will have no opportunity in the short frame to download forma and upload documents,” Mrs Moitra said.

The Congress president Mr Mallikarjun Kharge has alleged the latest move by ECI is at the behest of the BJP and is an attack on democracy and the Constitution. He accused the BJP of conspiring to deprive the people of Bihar of their voter rights through the SIR of electoral rolls. He cited a new advertisement issued by the ECI, urging the voters of Bihar to only fill a form under the SIR, and alleged that "when people rise, BJP backtracks".

"With the support of the Election Commission, the master plan that the BJP had devised to deprive crores of people in Bihar of their voting rights now seems to be ensnaring the BJP itself," Kharge alleged in a post in Hindi on X.

"Why are people who have been voting election after election being asked to show their documents for voting? Forcibly depriving the poor, weak, deprived, Dalits, oppressed and backward people of their voting rights is the conspiracy of the BJP-RSS," Mr Kharge alleged adding that nearly eight crore people will suffer because of the SIR.

"The responsibility to correct the voter list lies with the EC, not the public. When the pressure from the opposition, the public and civil society increased, the Election Commission hurriedly published these advertisements today, which state that now only a form needs to be filled and showing documents is not necessary," he claimed.