The Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Thursday that no claim or objection has been submitted by any political party regarding the draft voter list in Bihar.
The Election Commission has clarified that no eligible voter will be released nor any ineligible voter will be included in the last voter list of Bihar. The Commission has appealed to submit claims and objections to improve any error in Bihar’s draft voter list published on 1 August.
In the daily bulletin released on the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar, the Election Commission said that however, till date the Election Commission has received 5,015 claims and objections directly from voters regarding the draft list.
The number of forms received from new voters aged 18 or above is 27,517.
According to the rules, claims and objections are to be settled by the Electoral Registration Officer/Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (ERO/AERO) after the end of 7 days.
According to SIR orders, any name from the draft list published on August 1 cannot be removed from the list of ERO/AERO without passing the order and providing fair and appropriate opportunities.
Special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar has given rise to a political dispute, the opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party has alleged that the names of a large number of voters can be removed due to the revision process. They have been protesting in Parliament seeking discussion on Bihar SIR since the beginning of this year’s monsoon session.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday told the Election Commission to file its reply on the new application of an NGO by 9 August, seeking to disclose the figures of 65 lakh voters, which were not included in the draft voter list of Bihar after the SIR campaign.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing on behalf of an NGO, mentioned the case before the Supreme Court, saying that no specific information has been given about who is dead and who has migrated permanently.
A bench of Justice Suryakant, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh asked the Election Commission counsel to present the details of the removed voters, submit the data shared with political parties and give a copy of it to the NGO.
The Election Commission said that all necessary information has been given to political parties. The bench told Bhushan that the reason for removing the list would be known later, as it is only the draft list. However, Bhushan said that some political parties have been given a list of voters removed, but they have not clarified whether the voter is dead or has gone elsewhere.
On 1 August, the Election Commission of India released the draft of the voter list for Bihar after the completion of the calculation phase under SIR 2025. It said that the public has a month’s time to submit claims and objections, and it was assured that “no one would be removed from the draft voter list without any reason”.
The Election Commission said that 1.60 lakh booth level agents (BLA) nominated by the district presidents of 12 political parties actively participated in this process at the ground level.
The Commission allowed voters to verify their names through official link using their EPIC numbers. They were also allowed to enter claims and objections to add or remove names through the same portal.
In a campaign to ensure an accurate and updated voter ID card, ECI urged all voters to submit new photos to its booth level officials (BLOs) by September 1, 2025.
According to data obtained from revision work in Bihar, about 35 lakh voters have either migrated permanently or have not been detected at their registered address.
