EC Rejected 89 Lakh Complaints During Bihar Voter List Revision, Claims Congress
In a press conference on August 31, 2025, senior Congress leader Pawan Khera accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of large-scale irregularities in Bihar's electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Khera, who is the chairman of the media and publicity department of the Congress, claimed that the names of 65 lakh voters were deleted from the electoral rolls, with 25 lakh due to migration, 22 lakh due to deceased status, and 9,70,000 due to absenteeism. He further alleged that more than 20,000 booths had over 100 names deleted, and over 1,900 had more than 200 names deleted. Strikingly, he stated that over 7,000 booths had more than 70% of women's names deleted.
The Congress party has demanded a re-conduction of the entire SIR exercise due to these alleged irregularities. Khera alleged that the irregularities cast doubt on the intention of the ECI and demanded that the entire exercise be conducted again.
However, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar asserted that no Booth Level Agent (BLA) authorized by any district president of the Congress in Bihar has submitted any claim or objection on any deleted name. The CEO's office mentions that in Bihar, especially rural constituencies, it is common for multiple individuals to share identical names, parental names, and even similar ages.
The CEO's office also states that any alleged duplication at the draft stage cannot be construed as a "final error" or "illegal inclusion," as the law provides a remedy through the claims/objections period and subsequent verification by Electoral Registration Officers. If demographically similar entries are found, they are being identified and removed during this period.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filed 8.9 lakh complaints regarding irregularities in the electoral rolls during the SIR. The CEO's office states that the figure of 67,826 "dubious duplicates" cited in certain sections of the media is based on data mining and subjective matching of name/relative/age combinations, and that these parameters cannot conclusively prove duplication without documentary and field verification.
Khera alleged that when the Congress's BLAs went to lodge grievances, their complaints were turned down by the EC, and the EC told the BLAs that complaints could be accepted by individuals only, not by political parties. The Congress party has submitted 89 lakh complaints of irregularities in Bihar's electoral rolls during the SIR, but these were rejected by the ECI, according to Khera.
The Congress leader also alleges that there are cases of single voters having two EPIC numbers and that they have the receipts to support this claim. The CEO's office denies the charges, stating that no BLA authorized by any district president of the Congress in Bihar has submitted any claim or objection on any name in the draft electoral rolls.
The Congress party has demanded that the entire exercise be conducted again due to the alleged irregularities, a demand that remains to be addressed by the ECI.
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