– Mohd. Naushad Khan
In a move that has sent shockwaves through Bihar’s socio-political circles, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on June 24 announced a special intensive revision of the state’s electoral rolls, aiming to re-verify the identities of all 7.89 crore voters in just one month. The sweeping exercise is expected to remove nearly 1.6 crore voters from the rolls, barely months before the likely announcement of the state assembly elections.
The revision, set to conclude by July 26, will require the 3.16 crore voters listed as of January 1, 2003, to re-verify their details. An additional 4.74 crore voters will need to prove their identity and residence using a narrow list of 11 acceptable documents notably excluding commonly held IDs such as Aadhaar, voter IDs, ration cards, and MGNREGA job cards.
Civil rights groups and Opposition parties have condemned the move as a direct assault on democratic rights. Critics point out that the documentation requirements are particularly exclusionary for rural poor, Dalits, backward castes, and minorities – groups that historically lack access to birth certificates or formal education documents. According to National Family Health Survey, only 2.8% people of Bihar born between 2001 and 2005 possess birth certificates.
Adding to the controversy, the ECI reportedly told an Opposition delegation on July 2 that it expects to remove 20% of voters, a staggering 1.6 crore from the rolls. Observers are alarmed at the timing, with monsoon floods already affecting large parts of North Bihar and lakhs of seasonal workers still out of state.
“How can farm labourers in Punjab or flood-hit villagers in Sitamarhi be expected to return and provide obscure documents within four weeks?” asked an Opposition party leader. Critics also draw parallels with the Assam NRC process, where 19 lakh people were excluded but only a few hundred were ever confirmed as illegal immigrants. In Bihar, a state with no comparable history of immigration issues, the ECI’s primary justification of weeding out “foreign illegal immigrants” was quietly dropped after backlash.
Political observers argue that the process disproportionately affects those unlikely to vote for the BJP, particularly marginalised communities. “This is not administration. This is electoral engineering,” said one activist. The last similar revision in Bihar occurred in 2003, well in advance of any election, giving voters ample time to appeal exclusions. The current revision, taking place just two months before a likely election, leaves no time for appeals. As the July 26 deadline looms, calls are mounting for the ECI to suspend the revision process and conduct a transparent, consultative review.
According to Afroz Alam, a political analyst and head of the Political Science Department of MANUU, Hyderabad, “Democracy does not begin at the ballot box. It begins with the right to be listed. The ongoing electoral roll revision in Bihar, though grounded in constitutional obligation, appears alarmingly exclusionary in both design and timing. Requiring fresh proof of citizenship and birth for voters added post 2003, while exempting others, creates a two-tiered standard that unfairly burdens the most vulnerable migrants, daily-wage earners, and young first-time voters.
“Conducting this exercise during monsoon months and just ahead of crucial state elections further compounds the problem. It may be framed as a technical update, but in effect, it risks replicating the anxieties of NRC-like exclusions. Transparency, equity, and voter confidence must guide the process, not speed, suspicion, or selective scrutiny. The right to vote must not become a privilege earned through paperwork.”
Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI-ML Gen.-Sec., argued, “If the ECI has reasons to doubt the integrity of the electoral roll used since 2003, how does the ECI validate the outcomes of elections conducted on the basis of flawed electoral rolls? There already exist legally laid down provisions in the election conduct rules followed by the ECI to delete names by issuing show-cause notices to concerned electors and giving them time and opportunity to answer such notices. The SIR campaign of ECI now summarily discards entire rolls of electors registered after 2003.
“In many ways, the SIR seems to be akin to the traumatic NRC exercise conducted in Assam a few years ago. The Supreme Court monitored exercise took six years in Assam to cover 33 million applicants, where nearly 2 million applicants failed to furnish necessary documents. While the undocumented citizens and those whose documents were not accepted have since been living in a state of anxiety, harassment and insecurity, the Assam government is not even ready to consider the final NRC list as a conclusive record of citizenship.”
The CPI-ML leader further said, “The only difference between the NRC in Assam and the SIR or undeclared NRC in Bihar is that Bihar has a cut-off date of 1 January 2003 while Assam had a much earlier cut-off date – 24 March, 1971. But what happened in Assam over a period of six years is being sought to be done in Bihar, which is more than double in population size, in a period of just three months: one month for the preparation of the draft rolls and two months for finalisation of the same. Only time will tell us how many electors will be eliminated and disenfranchised in the process.”
Dr. Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, former President AMU Student’s Union and Congress leader, said, “The ongoing revision of electoral rolls by the EC, though essential for fair elections, risks disenfranchising many due to inadequate verification and large-scale migration in Bihar. However, in the specific context of Bihar, this exercise carries significant risks of inadvertently disenfranchising large segments of the population. One of the primary challenges stems from the state’s high levels of urbanisation and the widespread phenomenon of seasonal labour migration. Due to frequent movements in search of employment, many genuine voters – especially those belonging to economically weaker and marginalised communities – may be excluded from the updated rolls owing to inadequate verification mechanisms.
“The process has raised concerns regarding its transparency and possible political bias. The absence of a robust, inclusive, and well-communicated public awareness campaign has further compounded the issue, leaving many citizens unaware of their rights or the steps needed to ensure their inclusion in the electoral register. These systemic gaps not only threaten the integrity of the electoral process but also risk undermining public trust in democratic institutions.”
Emphasising the threat to democratic imbalance, Usmani said, “It seems ECI is planning backdoor NRC just 3 months before the assembly elections. It is, therefore, imperative that the ECI adopts a more transparent, inclusive, and locally informed approach to electoral roll revision to safeguard the democratic rights of all citizens in Bihar.”
