NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Sunday stepped up its attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of “compromising democratic values” through alleged irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. Senior party leader and MP KC Venugopal claimed the ECI is showing bias and vowed that the party will reveal “serious malpractices” in Bengaluru on August 5. The remarks come days after the poll body published the draft rolls for Bihar under the SIR exercise for 2025.
Venugopal, speaking to news agency ANI, alleged that the names of many voters have been “excluded” from the draft electoral rolls for Bihar recently released by the EC. He further said that there will be a get-together of opposition INDIA bloc leaders on August 7 in Delhi.“There will be a get-together on August 7 in Delhi. INDIA alliance leaders will be there,” Venugopal said.“We are protesting against SIR inside and outside Parliament. The Election Commission is systematically targeting the democratic values of this country. We expected neutrality from the Election Commission, but they are not doing so. The names of many voters have been excluded from the list in Bihar. How can a fair democracy run like this? We are going to reveal the serious malpractices of the Election Commission in Bengaluru on August 5,” he added.The ECI released the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on Friday afternoon, following the completion of the Enumeration Phase under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2025.It said the public has one month to submit claims and objections, assuring that “no name will be removed from the draft voter list without a stated reason.”The draft list, covering all 243 assembly Constituencies and 90,712 polling booths, was shared with all political parties by the 38 District Election Officers (DEOs) across the state.The ECI in a press note said, “As per SIR order, after the completion of the Enumeration Phase from 24 June to 25 July 2025, the draft Electoral Rolls have been published for Bihar on 1 August 2025.”A detailed list of electors whose names appeared in the June 24 rolls but were missing in the new draft was also shared with political parties for cross-verification.Additionally, 1.60 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) nominated by District Presidents of 12 political parties actively participated in the process on the ground.The commission enabled electors to verify their names through the official link — https://voters.eci.gov.in — using their EPIC numbers. They were also allowed to file claims and objections for inclusion or deletion of names through the same portal. In a drive to ensure accurate and updated voter identity cards, the ECI urged all voters to submit new photographs to their Booth Level Officers (BLOs) by September 1, 2025.The SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar has triggered a political row. Opposition parties under the INDIA bloc have alleged that the process may result in the deletion of a large number of legitimate voters from the list.According to data from the revision, around 35 lakh electors have either permanently migrated or could not be traced at their registered addresses. This has raised alarm over the integrity of the voter list as preparations are underway for a nationwide electoral roll update.Untraceable electors have emerged in large numbers during the Bihar exercise, adding to the opposition’s concerns.Government data from 2017 estimates that around 2.04 crore Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas are living illegally in India, further complicating the debate over voter roll accuracy. As of January 1, 2024, the country had 96.88 crore registered voters for the general elections, making the outcome of the current revision exercise highly consequential.
