The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday (July 27, 2025) said 91.69% of electors registered in the 2025 voter list in Bihar had submitted enumeration forms as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and these voters will be included in the draft list to be published on August 1.
Of the 7.89 crore registered electors as on June 24, over 7.24 crore had submitted enumeration forms indicating overwhelming participation, the poll body said in a statement. This, in effect, means the names of 65 lakh voters registered in the July 2025 list would not make it to the August 1 draft rolls.
In the 10-point statement, the ECI listed the various aims of the SIR, such as the inclusion of every eligible voter, participation of all political parties, inclusion of young and urban voters, and scrutiny of draft rolls and redressal of all grievances during the claims and objections period.
It said the names of voters who were not found include around 2.83% (22 lakh) deceased, 4.59% (36 lakh) who had permanently shifted or were not found, and 0.89% or 7 lakh who were enrolled at multiple places.
The exact status of these electors will be known after scrutiny of forms by the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officers by August 1. However, genuine electors can still be added back in the electoral rolls during the Claims and Objections period from August 1 to September 1. The names of the electors found enrolled at multiple places will be retained only at one place, the ECI said.
The poll body said young electors who have attained 18 years of age on July 1, 2025, or would be attaining 18 years on or before October 1, 2025 are being encouraged to file their application in Form 6, along with the prescribed Declaration Form.
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The commission said it would conduct special campaigns across Bihar from August 1 to September 1 to enrol such young electors, so that all eligible electors can be enrolled and no one is left out.
It said that SMSs explaining the SIR process were sent to 5.7 crore registered mobile numbers of all those electors who had registered their mobile numbers. During the enumeration period, the Chief Electoral Officer, District Election Officers and EROs conducted numerous campaigns for spreading awareness among electors about the SIR and also conducted several meetings with political parties to explain the process, and to keep them apprised of the progress of SIR.
As per the SIR order, from August 1 to September 1, any elector or political party may fill the prescribed forms and submit claims to the ERO for any eligible elector who is left out or file objections for removal of any ineligible elector.
The SIR order on June 24 had said that the exercise would be carried out across the country, beginning with Bihar. The contentious exercise has been challenged in the Supreme Court, with the hearing scheduled on July 28.
Opposition parties have branded it as “NRC through backdoor”.
A senior ECI official asked why a big issue is being made out of the exercise when there was a full one month, from August 1 to September 1, available to point out wrongful inclusion or exclusion of names. “Why are they creating such a big fuss now? Why not ask their 1.6 lakh BLAs to submit claims and objections from August till September 1?” the official asked.
The ECI said the credit for the “successful completion” of the first phase of SIR also goes to the Bihar CEO, 38 DEOs, 243 EROs, 2,976 AEROs, and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) deployed at 77,895 polling booths, lakhs of volunteers and full involvement of the field representatives of all the 12 major parties and as many as 1.60 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by them.
In a bid to ensure that no eligible voter is left behind, the ECI said CEO, DEOs and EROs held several meetings with parties to explain the SIR process. The BLOs also held booth-level meetings with BLAs.
The BLOs went house to house to each elector whose name was in the electoral rolls to distribute enumeration forms. They also made at least three visits to collect the filled enumeration forms.
Special efforts were also made to ensure that no temporary migrant is left behind. Full page advertisements in Hindi were published in 246 newspapers with a circulation of around 2.60 crore while the Bihar CEO wrote to all States and Union Territories to requesting them to make special efforts to reach out to temporarily migrated people.
Around 16 lakh migrant workers filled their enumeration forms online while another 13 lakh had downloaded the forms.
To ensure that no urban elector is left behind, special camps were set up in all 5,683 wards of all 261 urban local bodies.
The ECI also shared with the political parties booth-level lists of electors who were reported as deceased electors, or whose enumeration forms were not received, or who were reported to be permanently migrated or could not be traced an with the objective of requesting them to inquire about such electors in a focused manner.
“Subsequently, after noticing the efforts of the political parties, such updated lists were again shared with the representatives of political parties,” it said.
With an aim to ensure that there is no deletion and aggrieved electors are helped in filing appeals, the ECI is also training volunteers to help people file appeals against decisions of EROs. A standard format for filing appeals is also being devised and will be widely circulated to allow people to file appeals easily, it said.
Published – July 27, 2025 11:30 pm IST
