Immediately stop special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, say INDIA bloc leaders

Demanding a halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, INDIA bloc leaders on Monday (July 7, 2025) criticised the Election Commission (EC), and said the poll body was in a confused situation.

Addressing a press conference in Patna, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and the Left parties said the EC should not create doubts in the minds of common people and end the complex processes to strengthen democracy.

The INDIA bloc coordination committee headed by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav asked the EC to stop the SIR immediately in Bihar and continue it after the polls.

Mr. Yadav said Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Singh Gunjiyal had not yet responded to the doubts and questions raised by the INDIA bloc leaders on July 5, 2025. 

“People are being confused by no answers to the questions and every day the Election Commission is issuing new guidelines. Instead of clarifying the contradictory situation, people are being misled,” Mr. Yadav said.

‘No clarification issued’

The RJD leader asserted, “No clarification is being made on Aadhaar card, MGNREGS card, ration card as all these documents have been considered valid for the inclusion of new voters in Form-6 by the EC but in the notification issued on June 24, 2025, there is no recognition of these documents and 11 separate documents have been sought, which are not easy to provide for the poor and deprived sections.”

Talking about the EC advertisement which was published in all local newspapers of Bihar on Sunday (July 6, 2025), Mr. Yadav said the EC released a full-page advertisement but two different things were said in it.

“The EC says some things in the advertisement but the guidelines say something else. In the advertisement, it was said the enumeration form has to be filled and submitted immediately to the Booth Level Officers [BLOs] and the documents should be given later but after an hour, the EC said the form has to be filled according to the order that has already been issued,” Mr. Yadav said.

He said there was a lot of difference between the June 24 order and the advertisement released on July 6, 2025, due to which the confusion was prevailing among the voters.

“Two Facebook posts were issued by the office of the Election Commission. Then after an hour it is told that the documents have to be made available only by July 25, 2025. The Election Commission itself is not clear and is confusing all the voters. The EC should issue any information through press notes and official notification, which has complete transparency instead of putting it on social media,” the RJD leader said.

The former Deputy Chief Minister said more than four crore residents of Bihar live outside and the EC should answer how they would bring them.

Selection of BLOs

The Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly asked on what basis the volunteers helping the BLOs were selected and the list of all the volunteers should be made public.

“On June 28, 2025, the EC talked about appointing one lakh volunteers, on July 3, 2025, it said about four lakh volunteers. What are the criteria for their selection and whether they are government or non-government people, this should also be informed,“ Mr. Yadav said.

He alleged that the way the EC was working, it seemed that at the last moment, the names of voters would be deleted forcefully.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Yadav posted a message on social media account X, saying, “The game of removing votes of Dalits, Backward, Extremely Backward, and minorities and adding fake votes has begun. Modi-Nitish is determined to crush the Constitution and democracy and to snatch your voting rights through the Election Commission. Seeing the defeat, these people have now become frantic. When the voter’s vote itself is eliminated, what democracy and Constitution will remain?”

Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar raised the issue that the decision to give the sole responsibility to the Election Registration Officers (ERO) was wrong.

“The powers given to the EROs are not appropriate at all. The right of one person to make a decision can reduce impartiality somewhere because anyone can influence them because they are a government person, so they will work under the pressure of the government,” Mr. Kumar said.

In the advertisement, the EC said if the voters were unable to provide the required documents, the ERO could take a decision on the basis of local investigation or other documentary evidence.

VIP Chief Mukesh Sahani said teachers had been put on revision work which was affecting the studies of students in government schools.

CPI (ML) leader Kunal, CPI (M) MLA Awadhesh Kumar and CPI leader Ram Babu were also present during the press conference.