Bihar SIR: No objection filed by parties, says ECI

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday said that 127 claims and objections out of 10,570 received directly from electors regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar have been disposed off by officials so far. Even after 11 days since the publication of the draft electoral rolls, none of the political parties have filed any complaints, while more than 50,000 new electors, who crossed the stipulated voting age limit of 18 years, have submitted their forms, seeking new voter IDs for exercising their right to vote.the poll panel added.

On a day when opposition leaders, including Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were detained in Delhi during a protest against alleged manipulation of voter lists in some states, the ECI said that since August 1, as many as 54,432 new electors in Bihar — who turned 18 after the SIR exercise — have filed forms for inclusion in the voter list. Opposition parties have criticised the SIR exercise in Bihar over alleged irregularities, claiming it threatens to deprive lakhs of voters of their right to vote — a charge denied by the ECI. The poll panel published the draft electoral rolls on August 1 and has kept a one-month window for people, political parties, and their booth-level agents (BLAs) to raise complaints and grievances regarding inclusion or exclusion from the draft list. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has 47,506 BLAs, Congress has 17,549, and the Left has over 2,000, totaling more than 67,000 agents.

The enumeration phase of the SIR was conducted from June 24 to July 25. Over 7.24 crore electors — out of a total of 7.89 crore — submitted their enumeration forms during the exercise. After the process, about 65 lakh voters were found missing from the draft electoral rolls published on August 1. This included 22 lakh deceased electors (2.83 per cent), 36 lakh (4.59 per cent) who had permanently shifted or were not found, and seven lakh (0.89 per cent) who had enrolled at multiple locations, according to ECI data.

Meanwhile, The Election Commission of India (ECI) has started proceedings to delist 476 Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) that have failed to contest any elections for six consecutive years, as part of its ongoing efforts to streamline the electoral process. The move follows a similar exercise conducted recently, when the ECI delisted 334 inactive RUPPs on August 9, 2025, reducing the total number of listed RUPPs from 2,854 to 2,520. This second phase targets parties from various states and union territories across the country.