Bihar SIR: 22 lakh dead, 7 lakh duplicate voters – what EC has found after ‘99.8% coverage’ | India News

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission in Bihar announced Friday that 99.8 per cent of voters in the state have been covered under the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.According to the chief electoral officer (CEO), forms of more than 7.23 crores voters have been received and digitised. Their names will be published on August 1, 2025. The remaining forms and reports from Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are also expected to be completed by that date.As part of the clean-up of voter lists, 22 lakh names have been marked as deceased, 7 lakh voters were found registered in more than one place, and around 35 lakh people were either untraceable or had permanently moved away. About 1.2 lakh forms are still awaited.On July 20, a list of voters who are dead, have migrated, or didn’t submit forms was shared with 12 political parties including BJP, Congress, RJD, JD(U), AAP, CPM, and others so that they could check and raise any objections before the Draft Roll is finalised.This large-scale revision is being carried out with the help of over 77,000 BLOs, nearly 3,000 assistant officers, and more than 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) representing all major parties.However, the process has faced criticism from opposition parties. Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi alleged that irregularities were taking place in the revision exercise in poll-bound Bihar. He said, “the Election Commission is not functioning as the Election Commission of India. Today they made some statement. This is complete nonsense.”Chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar responded strongly to the criticism. He said, “Should we be swayed by these attacks and allow bogus votes to be cast in the name of deceased, permanently shifted, enrolled at two or more places or illegal foreign immigrants? First in the state and then across the country?”According to the SIR guidelines, from August 1 to September 1, any voter or political party can file a request to include eligible voters who may have been left out or raise objections against ineligible entries in the list.