11,000 'not traceables' electors revealed by Bihar’s SIR could be illegal immigrants

NEW DELHI: While the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Bihar is well on track with merely 32 lakh electors left to be covered, what has caught attention is the mention of 11,000 “not traceable” electors in the latest update put out by Election Commission on Saturday.

Sources told TOI that electors “not traceable” during SIR are possibly illegal immigrants living outside Bihar but who were enrolled in the state with a possible intent to create scope for bogus votes.An EC functionary explained that “not traceable” electors were not just not found at their recorded addresses by the booth level officers (BLOs) but never known to have lived there even by immediate neighbours. In some cases, no house or dwelling was found at these addresses.“It is possible that they are illegal immigrants — possibly Bangladeshis or Rohingyas — who may be living in neighbouring states but somehow managed to get themselves electoral photo identity cards from Bihar, possibly due to lack of requisite checks during summary revisions or even corrupt means,” an official said, adding that this poses a risk of bogus votes being cast during elections.Nearly 41.6 lakh electors in Bihar, comprising 5.3% of its total electorate, were not found at their addresses despite three mandatory visits by BLOs; these include 14.3 lakh (1.8%) probably deceased electors, 19.7 lakh or 2.5% probably permanently shifted electors, 7.5 lakh or 0.9% electors enrolled at multiple places; and 11,000 ‘not traceable’ electors.

The figure of possibly deceased electors is also intriguing, considering that their names had figured in Bihar rolls as on June 24, 2025.“The deceased voters were never removed from the list, which creates a leeway for bogus votes. Over 41 lakh missing electors, when split across constituencies, may be larger than the victory margin in some,” said an officer, justifying the need for intensive revision of rolls to detect and correct such anomalies.Accounting for 5.3% voters not found at their addresses thus far, almost 96% of Bihar’s 7.9 crore electors have turned in their enrolment forms. Nearly 88.2% of the 90.6% electors forms received so far, have been digitised.