In the latest salvo in its ongoing vilification campaign aimed at discrediting the Election Commission of India and thereby eroding India’s democratic process, Congress leader Pawan Khera attacked Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (S.I.R) claiming that the “EC keeps getting news planted through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the S.I.R to the EC… When our BLAs went to file complaints, their complaints were turned down by the EC. The EC categorically told our BLAs that complaints could be accepted by individuals only, not by political parties.”
He also alleged cases of duplication and demanded that the S.I.R be re-conducted. These remarks are typical of the Congress Party’s game plan that is in play currently: a strategy crafted by its leader Rahul Gandhi who revels in making baseless accusations against the EC that are sensational, outrageous and provocative but lacking in evidence and thereby unable to fulfill the criteria of due process.
Responding to Pawan Khera’s charges which have elements of his leader’s shenanigans, the Bihar CEO unequivocally demolished the Congress charge with a point-by-point rebuttal.
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District Congress Committee presidents submitted letters to District Election Officers in the last 1-2 days, alleging deletion of around 89 lakh names from Bihar’s electoral rolls.
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As per rules and directions of the Election Commission, objections to deletions can only be raised under Rule 13 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 through Form 7, or by BLAs of recognised political parties using the prescribed format along with a declaration under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
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The Supreme Court, in its interim order dated 22 August 2025, also clarified that objections by 12 political parties must be submitted in the prescribed format to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer.
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Since the objections submitted by District Congress Committee presidents were not in the required format, District Election Officers have forwarded them to the concerned Electoral Registration Officers for appropriate action.
With regard to the allegation of duplicate voters the Bihar CEO office stated that current draft rolls are being scrutinized and not final. The ECI in another statement pointed out that unlike the Congress, its allies the RJD and CPI-ML had conformed to the rules: the RJD had filed 10 claims through its validly appointed Booth-Level Agents (BLAs) and the CPI-ML had submitted 15 claims for inclusion and 103 objections for exclusion as of August 31, 2025.
This only confirms that the Congress Party is all talk and no substance: prone to make wild baseless allegations without palpable evidence to file an appropriate complaint. The Congress is not serious about rectifying issues like a responsible political party. Its objections are mere grandstanding to garner undue political advantage.
Article 326 of the Indian Constitution states that every citizen who is not less than 18 years of age shall be entitled to be registered as a voter and Article 324 of the Constitution decrees that “the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to Parliament and to the Legislature of every State and of elections to the offices of President and Vice-President held under this Constitution shall be vested in a Commission (referred to in this Constitution as the Election Commission).”
Section 21 of the Peoples Representation Act (1950) gives the ECI the authority to prepare and maintain accurate electoral rolls and make necessary revisions as required. A Special Intensive Revision (S.I.R) is distinct from a summary revision (which is an update of existing data prior to elections) in that it is prepared afresh.
S.Y. Quraishi, a former Chief Election Commissioner, has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the Bihar S.I.R in op-eds and TV interviews. In an op-ed on August 20, while lauding the EC for a job well done, Quraishi calls for more transparency. He writes: “In the current S.I.R, the Commission has released a granular breakdown of deletions… This precision in identifying and removing inaccuracies is laudable. However, the number of new voters added after this clean-up has not been made public… That is a serious omission, as the addition of bogus voters is a perennial complaint.”
He concludes: “Public access is fundamental to democratic accountability. For an organisation that has built its reputation as one of the most respected election management bodies in the world, returning to its fullest, most uncompromising version of transparency is not just desirable—it is necessary for the preservation of democratic trust.”
Accordingly on September 1, the EC informed the SC that “with respect to new eligible citizens attaining the age of 18 years or more, a total of 15,32,438 applications for first-time inclusion in the electoral roll have been received.”
Quraishi also raised the question of the need for a Special Intensive Revision instead of a Summary Revision in a television interview. In its order dated June 24, 2025, the ECI had clearly stated the reasons for conducting the S.I.R. Over the last 20 years due to rapid urbanisation and migration, large-scale additions and deletions to the electoral rolls had occurred producing duplicate entries which needed to be rectified. Moreover, it was necessary to ensure that only genuine citizens, not illegal migrants, were enrolled in the electoral rolls.
S.I.R is basically an exercise in sovereignty; an attempt to include citizens and weed out non-citizens or illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration, which is rampant in the Northeast can result in a situation wherein illegal immigrants can sway elections, hijack the process of democracy and cause irreparable damage to our sovereignty as a secular democratic nation.
This is especially so in the areas bordering Bangladesh, more so in Assam and West Bengal and to a less extent in Bihar.
Areas of Bihar close to Bangladesh especially those with a high Muslim population have registered skyrocketing growth rates in recent times. Kishanganj (Muslim population of 67.98%) had a growth rate of 30.40%, one of the highest in the state. Araria (42.95% Muslim) registered a growth rate of 30.25%, while the districts of Purnia (38.46%, Muslim) and Katihar (44.47%, Muslim) showed growth rates of 28.33 and 28.35 respectively. All growth rates were significantly above the average growth of Bihar which was 25.33%.
During the ongoing S.I.R process, the four Seemanchal districts (Purnia, Araria, Katihar and Kishanganj) has seen a rush of people applying for residential certificates prompting Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary to remark “that many of the applicants are immigrants from other countries. We suspect a sizable percentage of the people in Kishanganj could be from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.”
The S.I.R is a Parliament-sanctioned process (Rep. Act 1950) for the ECI to maintain accurate electoral rolls so that only legitimate Indian citizens take part in the electoral process. Oversight by the SC makes the process transparent and regulation compliant. There is no ulterior motive on the part of the ECI or the government by extrapolation.
True the S.I.R may have its glitches. But no process is perfect. In a democracy it is vital that all work together to overcome deficiencies in different processes so that the legitimate citizen is not shortchanged.
The ECI has been working with the SC to do so. To conduct an S.I.R with some drawbacks is better than not performing an S.I.R at which may have long term deleterious consequences for the sovereignty of our nation.
Repeated attempts by the main opposition party and certain activists to stall the process by baseless allegations is not only detrimental to our democracy by creating confusion in the minds our citizens but may also suggest a more nefarious agenda. Is this an exercise to preserve its illegitimate vote bank accrued by years of facilitation of illegal immigration by the Congress Party in the Northeast?
