Bihar Draft Voter List Published But Controversy Over SIR Amplifies
The SIR exercise has witnessed leaders of opposition parties alleging that it was done at the behest of the BJP.
Published : August 2, 2025 at 5:06 PM IST
Patna: Amid a raging controversy, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has published the draft voter list after completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. The draft list has been given to the various District Magistrates (DM) and the voters can seek addition, deletion and modification for one month after which the final list will be published.
There are about 7.75 crore voters in Bihar of which 65 lakh names stand to be deleted in the SIR exercise where the ECI claimed to identify deceased, missing and permanent migrants. Majority of voters facing deletion are from Patna followed by Madhubani.
The ECI said that the draft voter list was published on August 1, 2025 and is available online and the DMs have handed over the draft voter list of all the 90,772 booths of 245 assembly constituencies to various political parties.
Senior journalist Arun Pandey pointed out, “In the form I had submitted, my father's name and age have been wrongly recorded, which I will get corrected. Similarly, other voters can also get mistakes corrected by September 1. The voter list will be revised by September 30. There are more than 90,000 booths in Bihar where the BLOs and their assistants will help the voters in correcting."
The SIR exercise has witnessed leaders of opposition parties, particularly Rahul Gandhi and Tejaswi Yadav alleging that it was done at the behest of the BJP. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has said it was not opposed to the exercise but the manner in which it was carried out.
Party spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav said, “The list released by the ECI will be studied by the RJD. All the documents will be made available to show where and what mistakes have been made. Now even the names of dogs and cats are appearing in the voter list.”
He once again questioned, “If Aadhar card is the basis for obtaining the 11 documents demanded by the ECI then why was the Aadhar card not accepted?”
Meanwhile, Arun Pandey also believes that the opposition parties were mainly concerned about the timing of the exercise that came just ahead of the assembly polls in the state. The revised voter list was published in January after which the SIR was carried out. The matter has reached the Supreme Court where a decision is pending.
"There is always a discussion about foreign intruders in some districts of Seemanchal in Bihar. How the population of a particular community has increased was being raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The politics was around the deletion of these names,” he said.
The ECI claims to have made an effort to add the name of every eligible voter to the voter list. Bihar’s Chief Election Officer (CEO), District Election Officers of 38 districts, 243 Election Nomination Officers, 2976 Assistant Election Nomination Officers, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) posted at 90712 voter centers, lakhs of volunteers and 1,60,000 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) nominated by the district presidents of 12 political parties played an important role in the exercise.
The ECI said that in an unprecedented participation, more than 7.24 crore voters filled the enumeration form. Any voter or political party can file claims and objections by filling the prescribed form before the concerned Electoral Registration Officer for adding the names of eligible voters and removing the names of ineligible voters till September 1.
The ECI has appealed to all the eligible voters to check their name in the list and submit the declaration form along with Form Six (6) to get his or her name added in case it is not there. It has asked the young voters who have turned 18 between July 1 and October 1, 2025 to fill Form 6 and get their name registered in the voter list.
The ECI has assured that before removing any name from the SIR format list, the concerned officials will have to issue a written order on which the DM and CEO will hear an appeal.
According to the data released by the ECI 7.23 crore voters in the state participated in the SIR process and forms of 99.8 % of the voters have been submitted of which a digital record has been made.
People from the state who are working outside can fill form 6A to get their names enumerated before September 1.
Meanwhile, those who have turned 18 years by January 1, 2025 can get their name included in the voter list by filling Form 6 which has to be uploaded along with necessary documents. Special camps have also been set up at the CEO office in every block, zonal office as well as the municipal area. New voters can submit their applications from 10 am to 5 pm on all days of the week.
With the ECI handing over the draft voter list to the recognized political parties, the latter will now be able to assist in checking the voter list through their BLAs.
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