INDIA bloc events mentioned that particular intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar will end result within the deletion of tens of lakhs of real voters.
Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi with Bihar social gathering President Rajesh Ram, CPI (ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, RJD chief Manoj Jha, and different INDIA bloc leaders deal with the media after assembly the Election Commission, outdoors Nirvachan Sadan, in New Delhi, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (PTI)
Leaders from 11 INDIA bloc events, together with the Congress, RJD, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML)-Liberation, NCP-SP, and the Samajwadi Party, met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and different officers at Nirvachan Sadan, submitting a joint illustration opposing the transfer.
“The methodology, timeline, and course of prescribed for the SIR is assured to make sure a disastrous end result that may end result within the deletion of tens of lakhs of real voters, particularly these on the margins of society,” the events mentioned within the illustration.
The opposition slammed the ECI for introducing “advanced and burdensome guidelines requiring voters to submit their and their mother and father’ beginning certificates, primarily based on their 12 months of beginning,” describing the necessities as “arbitrary, inconsistent, and an unfair burden on the estimated 8.1 crore eligible voters in Bihar in 2025.”
They additionally raised questions concerning the Commission’s coverage of exempting solely these whose names appeared on the electoral rolls in 2003.
“The Election Commission has purportedly taken the place that people whose names appeared within the electoral rolls as of the 12 months 2003 are exempt from the requirement of re-enrolment, whereas these not listed therein should endure the method anew. It is submitted that this classification lacks readability and authorized justification,” the illustration acknowledged.
Calling the train “a deceptive and questionable measure masquerading as a corrective step,” the INDIA bloc warned that it might lead to focused disenfranchisement.
“It successfully palms over management to lakhs of state and central authorities officers, who will now decide who has legitimate paperwork and who doesn’t, and in the end who can and can’t vote in Bihar. This opens the door to the deliberate exclusion of voters via the misuse of administrative authority,” the illustration added.
Over 2 crore voters could also be disenfranchised in Bihar, says Singhvi
After the assembly, Congress chief Abhishek Manu Singhvi, joined by RJD MP Manoj Jha, mentioned, “A minimal of two crore individuals could also be disenfranchised on this train as many, particularly the SCs, STs, migratory and impoverished among the many practically eight crore voters in Bihar is probably not able to current their and their mother and father’ beginning certificates to the ballot authorities in such a brief interval.”
Singhvi additionally expressed concern over the shortage of authorized treatment, saying that voters might not have the ability to problem deletions as soon as elections are introduced. “They wouldn’t have the ability to problem the removing of their names from the electoral rolls as polls would start by then, and courts don’t hear challenges when elections are underway,” he mentioned.
He additional questioned the rationale behind the train. “We requested the EC that the final revision was in 2003, and for 22 years after, 4–5 elections have occurred. Were all these elections defective or imperfect or unreliable? The SIR was held one 12 months earlier than normal elections and two years earlier than meeting elections,” Singhvi added.
