Bihar's 'Purified' Voter List Marred by Major Errors, Two Separate Analyses Find
New Delhi: A day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared Bihar’s voter roll "purified," a detailed investigation by The Reporters' Collective has found it contains over 14 lakh suspected duplicate voters and 1.3 crore entries with fictitious addresses.
A separate analysis by researchers Yogendra Yadav and Rahul Shastri in The Indian Express further reveals that the revision process resulted in the exclusion of nearly 80 lakh eligible voters and disproportionately removed Muslims from the final list, which will be used for the state’s assembly elections in November.
The findings from both reports stand in stark contrast to the ECI's official position. On October 5, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar announced the success of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), stating, “The voters' list in Bihar has been purified… The exercise will now be conducted across the country.”
Dubious data in final roll, reports The Reporters' Collective
According to the investigation by The Reporters' Collective, which analysed the final list for all 243 constituencies, systemic problems identified in the draft roll were not corrected. Their report documents 14.35 lakh suspected duplicates, including 3.42 lakh cases where voters’ names, relatives’ names, and ages were an exact match on multiple IDs.
The Collective also uncovered that around 1.32 crore voters are registered at dubious or fake addresses. In one of the most egregious cases in the Pipra constituency, 505 individuals from different families remain registered to a single non-existent address.
Also read: Between Its Ambiguities and Inconsistencies, the EC's Bihar SIR Data is Virtually Unverifiable
On-the-ground reporting by the Collective confirmed that ECI officials had not conducted the necessary verification. "No one came forward from anywhere. Now, we can't do anything," resident Shivnath Das, who is registered at the fictitious address, told their reporters.
Mass exclusions and demographic skewing
The analysis by Yadav and Shastri highlights a different but equally troubling set of failures. Their audit, based on population data, suggests the proportion of eligible adults on the voter roll has plummeted from 97% to 88%, which translates to approximately 80 lakh potential voters being disenfranchised.
Their research also found the SIR has worsened the gender ratio, more than doubling the gap of missing women voters to 16 lakh. Furthermore, they report that Muslims, who are 16.9% of Bihar’s population, accounted for 33% of the names deleted between the draft and final lists.
A process rushed and flawed
The persistence of these errors raises serious questions about the integrity of the SIR process. In Muzaffarpur, The Reporters' Collective spoke with ward councillor Shanat Kumar, who said his repeated attempts to remove his long-deceased parents from the list had failed.
Also read: Bihar Assembly Elections: After Close Contest in 2020, SIR, Jan Suraaj Factor Can Spring Surprises
"The entire work was done in a hurry, and as a result, this has happened," Kumar told them.
With the ECI preparing to use this flawed list for the upcoming Bihar elections and planning a nationwide rollout of the SIR model, the evidence presented by these two independent analyses points to a looming crisis for India's electoral process.
This article went live on October seventh, two thousand twenty five, at twenty-four minutes past four in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
