Bihar Politics: The politics of Bihar is once again in the headlines across the country, but this time not for a scam, scams or the war of leaders, but for a digital revolution that is going to be not only in India’s electoral history, but can also decide the direction of future politics. But the experiment which the Election Commission is presenting as ‘Gaurav’ is now seen in new allegations of social boycott and technical discrimination. 28 June 2025 This date is now going to be recorded in history. Because on this day, Bihar will become the first state in the country where voters will be able to vote from their mobiles. As much as ‘modern’ and ‘smart’ seems to be heard, the ground reality looks as blurred and dangerous.
Digital revolution or division of democracy?
According to the Bihar State Election Commission, this initiative of e-voting is being done for municipal general and by-elections. That is, voters will now be able to sit at home through an app, sit abroad or choose candidates from their village. For this, mobile apps named secbhr and secbihar have been created, which will work on the registered mobile number. 51,155 voters have registered in this system. One of these large sections is of migrant laborers, elderly, pregnant women and disabled, for whom it is not possible to go to traditional booths. But the question is now beginning to arise – is this facility available equally for everyone? Or is this also a conspiracy to create a new ‘digital vote bank’?
Voting of smartphones, the rest of the democratic boycott?
Former ward councilor like Rinku Devi, working in the village-countryside, says, “We have a small mobile, we cannot even download the app. This scheme is not made for us.” Feedbacks from districts like Buxar, Saran, Rohtas and Gaya are telling that women and elders are now considering themselves as ‘out of the right to vote’. Social activist Shahina Parveen and many NGOs have warned that e-voting can become a tool to quietly outdo a large section due to lack of digital literacy, unavailability of smartphones, and network obstacles. Bihar’s Tele Dansity is still only 57.23%, while the national average is 85.04%. Talking about internet density, Bihar is stuck at just 42.1%. That is, the remaining half of the population is still cut off from the digital world.
‘Vote app’ or ‘vote trap’? Is the game of data happening under the guise of technology?
A big question is also arising that if the voting is through mobile apps, then how will the confidentiality of the data, the safety of the app and the validity of the vote? Is there a technical guarantee that not to vote from the wrong place? Will the permission to cast two votes from the same mobile number in rural areas will not increase the possibility of fraud? Election Commissioner Deepak Prasad says that “only votes can be cast from registered mobile number.” But experts believe that even in the registration process, the poor and uneducated classes have lagged behind due to Aadhaar, OTP and technical nets.
Is this really an attempt to increase the ‘voting percentage’?
The Election Commission claims that this initiative is an attempt to increase the voting percentage, especially for those migrant laborers who could not participate in voting till now. But statistics show that only 51 thousand voters registered for e-voting, while there are lakhs of voters in these districts. Does not the fact that this information did not reach most of the people or they technically consider themselves disabled? Has e-voting only become a privilege for urban, smartphone-holder and internet-user category?
People sitting in Dubai and Qatar will vote, but not Rinku Devi of the village?
On the one hand, the Election Commission is proud to explain that the overseas Indians sitting in Dubai and Qatar will now be able to vote, but on the other hand women of Siwan, Banka or Rohtas of Bihar are saying – “We know nothing about this app.” So is this digital democracy becoming a new digital discrimination?
Will you change elections or break trust with technology?
The intention behind this experiment may be good, but seeing the ground truth and social impact, it is not difficult to say that e-voting has become a combination of urban dream and rural sorrow at the moment. If this experiment was not successful and millions of people could not vote just because they did not have a smartphone or internet, then the question will not just raise the validity of the entire democracy. Bihar wanted to show the country to the digital revolution, but somewhere this revolution would not become a graveyard of the right to vote!
