Sami Ahmad, TwoCircles.net
Patna: A staggering 7 crore 89 lakh 69 thousand 844 voters in Bihar now face one of the largest documentation drives ever launched in the country. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has made it mandatory for every registered voter in the state to complete this process in the next three weeks for Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Of these, around 4.96 crore voters are required to fill an enumeration form. The remaining 2.93 crore must provide documents proving their identity and also their parents’. The ECI has listed eleven types of documents, although it says the list is only illustrative. Those who fail to comply risk being removed from the voter list, and worse, many believe, could face charges of being an ‘illegal immigrant’.
Until now, a simple Aadhaar card was enough to get registered. But under the new process, voters must now submit multiple documents to the Booth Level Officer (BLO) by July 26. Anyone who fails to do so may allegedly be delisted. The move has come just four months before the Assembly election in the state and has sparked criticism for its sudden implementation. Political parties are demanding that the 2024 Lok Sabha electoral roll be used instead for the upcoming polls.
The documentation rules vary by age. Those born before July 1, 1987, must provide proof of their birth or place of birth. Those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, must submit documents of their own birth and one parent. Those born after December 2, 2004, need to provide proof of their own birth and that of both parents.
Opposition parties and social organisations have sharply criticised the move. They say it unfairly targets marginalised communities – the poor, rural populations, Dalits, backward classes and Muslim minorities.
On July 2, leaders of 12 Opposition parties belonging to the INDIA bloc met the ECI, questioning the timing of the SIR. The Opposition leaders expressed their concern before ECI that lakhs of genuine votes face deletion, especially from the marginalised sections who would face difficulties in arranging the required documents.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said the SIR stands the risk of disenfranchisement of minimum 2 crore voters.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha Manoj Jha pointed out that the target of the SIR are those 20 percent of the Bihar population who migrate for jobs and livelihood. He said the purpose of SIR seems to be exclusion instead of inclusion. He said that if SIR is not revoked the opposition will hit the streets.
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “Our concerns regarding the SIR has increased after meeting with the ECI.”
He accused that no satisfactory answer was provided to the worries of the opposition parties.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had warned about such a move, calling it a form of “Maharashtra match fixing”.
He had linked the Maharashtra Assembly controversy, where “fake votes” were allegedly added and genuine voters removed, to similar risks in Bihar.
On June 7, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “(Poll) rigging is like match fixing… the match fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next.”
Opposition leaders say that moment arrived on June 24, when the ECI announced a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s voter list.
The ECI, in its official statement, said, “The objective of an intensified revision is to ensure that the names of all eligible citizens are included… no ineligible voter is included… and to introduce complete transparency in the process.”
It added that the last such revision in Bihar was carried out in 2003.
However, civil society groups and political parties have slammed it as a “disenfranchisement drive” – even coining the term “vote ban”, comparing it to the 2016 note ban.
Rupesh, an activist from Lok Parishad, said the SIR is a deliberate attempt to strip voting rights from the poor and favour the ruling party. “It is anti-poor, and the deprived section will be hit immensely by it,” he alleged.
The ECI’s own note states one reason for the revision is to weed out “foreign illegal immigrants”.
Critics say this is politically motivated and anti-Muslim, especially as the issue of illegal immigrants has been frequently raised by the Right wing Hindu nationalist organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its political wing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
These concerns have largely focused on the Seemanchal region – Kishanganj, Araria, Purnea and Katihar – which have high Muslim populations.
This is why many are calling the SIR a “backdoor NRC”. It resembles the controversial citizenship verification exercise conducted in Assam.
Bhattacharya drew a comparison. “The NCR process took six years in Assam and yet the list was not accepted. In Assam, 3.3 crore people submitted documents. In Bihar, it is around eight crore,” he said.
He questioned how the ECI plans to complete such a large exercise in one month, during monsoon and peak farming season.
Rupesh also pointed out that the document requirements are extremely tough. Many people, especially the poor, lack birth certificates or parental records.
“This is a significant issue in Bihar, where literacy is low and around 85% of people live in rural areas,” he said.
He mentioned the 70 lakh migrant labourers, saying they are unlikely to meet the deadline and risk being silently removed from the voter list.
After public backlash, the ECI issued another press note on June 28, stressing that all actions were as per the Constitution. “Only Indian citizens, above 18 years and ordinary resident in that constituency, are eligible,” it said quoting Article 326.
It also claimed that all political parties were participating in the process. The ECI said it had 77,895 BLOs and was adding 20,603 more for new polling stations. It also promised that over 1 lakh volunteers would assist vulnerable voters – the elderly, sick, disabled and poor. The BLOs are also finding it hard to handle the situation as they have not been provided the full number of enumeration forms. While the ECI said that two set of forms will be provided to the electors, only one set is being distributed as the BLOs said they got only one set.
However, on the ground, voters say they had not received any SMS alerts by July 3, though the ECI claimed it had started sending messages to 5.74 crore registered mobile numbers.
BLOs, meanwhile, were still undergoing training as of June 29, and many voters were not even aware of the documentation drive.
This is not the first time a government drive has run into problems over documentation. The Bihar land survey faced similar hurdles and had to be delayed repeatedly. Eventually, it was almost shelved. Observers now expect the ECI to face similar resistance.
The Congress party has raised serious concerns, calling the SIR both “devious and dubious”. It warned that lakhs of state and central government officials will now have unchecked power to decide “who has the correct document and who does not, who gets to vote and who does not”.
The party said the risks of deliberate voter exclusion are high. It argued that using Aadhaar would be more practical and inclusive for Bihar.
As the Bihar Assembly elections near, this massive verification exercise could become the most significant political flashpoint in the state.