Bihar Voter Final List: Think, today you are preparing yourself to vote and tomorrow you know that now your name is not in the voter list. Something similar has happened in Bihar where a “Special Iterey Revision” of the Election Commission i.e. SIR has shaken the entire political land. According to the latest data, the names of 65 lakh people in Bihar have been removed from the voter list. These include 22 lakh deceased, 36 lakh displaced, 7 lakh permanent people going to other places. Now the question arises, is it just a technical process or is there a deep conspiracy hidden behind it?
7.89 crore reduced to 7.24 crores
Out of 7.89 crore voters, only 7.24 crore have survived in this broad revision, which started from 24 June 2025. The Election Commission says it was a clean process in which repetition, names of dead people, and immigrant voters were removed. With the help of booth level officer (BLO) and booth level agents (BLA), information was collected from house to house, forms were filled and voter list was purified. The Commission claims that 99.8% of the voters have been covered in this process. Not only this, this work had more than 1.60 lakh BLA, and a 16% increase in the number of BLA has also been recorded. The Commission is considering it a ‘success’.
Then why is there a ruckus in Bihar?
Because not just the number is the number, there is a story behind each number. And in Bihar politics, this story has now turned into suspicion and allegations. RJD, Congress and many opposition parties claim that this entire SIR campaign is a ‘hidden conspiracy’. They allege that the poor, Dalits, backward and minorities have been excluded from the voter list through this process. Tejashwi Yadav even said that it is “NRC brought from the backdoor”, which has been quietly implemented to benefit the NDA.
“Where is the evidence?” Big question of opposition
RJD and Congress say that most families in Bihar do not have original documents. Birth certificate, proof of address and old identity… It is not all with many rural and disadvantaged communities. Especially it is shocked that the number of people having birth certificates between 2001 and 2005 is only 2.8% in Bihar. In such a situation, the opposition argues that millions of people will be deprived of their democratic rights only due to lack of papers.
Commission’s answer and further process
The Election Commission has said that this was just the first phase. Now from 1 August to 1 September 2025, people whose names have been missed by mistake will get a chance to add to the draft list. Apart from this, people whose names were recorded more than one place will be added to only one place. And now there are plans to implement the Bihar model across the country. But was it possible in a transparent process to remove the name on such a large scale? Are the names of only dead and displaced people really removed? Or something else has happened that is being hidden?
Political mercury is up in Bihar
Tejashwi Yadav, Congress leader and other opposition parties can now make the issue the biggest electoral weapon in the 2025 assembly elections. The RJD leader says that “this is not just the cleanliness of the voter list, but the murder of voting rights.” Political analysts also believe that if there is any truth in these allegations, it can create a big public anger against the NDA. At the same time, the ruling party is currently silent on this issue, but electoral strategies in the inside have intensified.
So what will happen now?
Now the ball is in the public’s court. Those who have been removed from the list will have to prove their identity to join again, but will they be able to do it? Will they get the right to vote again? Or the election of 2025 in Bihar will be held without millions of people who were once part of democracy… but now have been erased from the list?
A campaign, many questions
The first phase of SIR i.e. special items revision may have been completed, but it has given rise to many questions in Bihar. It has become not just the trim of the paper, but has become a fight for trust and rights. It remains to be seen whether the Election Commission is able to prove transparency and the public can get both its name and rights back. Because democracy is not just the right to vote, it is also the responsibility to save it.
