Bihar: SIR sparks anxiety and anger

Confusion, chaos and conflict leave minority, migrant and marginalised voters vulnerable across Bihar as the Election Commission of India (ECI) hurtles ahead with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. “I never even applied or filled a form and yet I find it uploaded on ECI’s portal,” says Rashid. Isn’t he relieved amidst talks of disenfranchising voters from the minority community? He is actually apprehensive that just as his form is uploaded “automatically”, it can as easily be deleted.

“I have no proof that I submitted the form and received a signed receipt from the BLO; but when I ask for the duplicate form or try to submit my filled-up form, I am turned away,” he adds by way of explanation.

Rashid had reached out to some youths, all Muslims, gathered under a neem tree next to a dargah in the Sultanganj area of Patna. They say they are volunteers helping residents to fill forms and submit them.

One of the young men, a student of Masters of Computer Applications, backs Rashid. “We prefer submitting forms online because we believe it is much safer than handing them over to the BLO. However, we find that forms are often being auto-filled from the backend or are being tampered with. We have no clue who is entering the data,” he says. Could it be an isolated incident or technical glitch? Or is it something more sinister? Nobody here seems to have a plausible answer.

Rashid’s experience also confirms what other video journalists are reporting from the ground. In a series of videos, senior journalist and YouTuber Ajit Anjum has shown BLOs filling blank forms on the basis of revised electoral rolls published in January 2025. They can be seen not only filling the forms but also putting signatures on behalf of voters who seem blissfully unaware. While alert voters like Rashid have been able to catch on, most voters remain clueless.

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In Rashid’s own home, updated forms of three family members are uploaded without their knowledge, while two others are struggling to submit their forms.

The Opposition for once seems to be putting up a fight. The INDIA bloc is spearheading a people-led campaign to prevent arbitrary exclusion of voters. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the largest party in the Opposition bloc in Bihar, has rolled out a campaign named ‘Matdata Bachao Abhiyan’ (save the voter campaign). RJD sources say coordinators, organisers and volunteers have been assigned assembly constituencies to help people and also monitor the SIR of electoral rolls which, as per the ECI’s orders, has to be completed by 25 July.

A large banner outside the RJD office in Patna reads, ‘RSS ke survey mein Tejashwi ki sarkar ban rahi hai, isliye BJP apne tota chunav aayog se dhandhali karwa rahi hai (an RSS survey shows Tejashwi’s government is coming to power, so the BJP is using its puppet, the Election Commission, to rig the election)'.

Inside the RJD office, volunteers are busy calling up local units and district heads, urging them to step up mobilisation. “The goal,” one volunteer says, “is to reach every booth-level voter so that vote bandi can be stopped.” They say reports are pouring in from across Bihar about officials refusing to accept forms filled by voters — especially in areas where INDIA bloc parties have become active.

The RJD team claims that there is enough public proof of the diabolical design of SIR. In Darbhanga, the head of the BJP district women’s cell was caught on camera reviewing SIR forms inside a government office, seated beside a BLO. In Gopalganj, the district magistrate reportedly informed volunteers that forms would not be accepted after 17 July, even though no such deadline has been declared officially and communicated publicly. In Ramnagar, a BDO allegedly told RJD workers: “We are under pressure, so we’ve stopped taking forms.”

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Similar complaints have come from Bagaha in West Champaran. “This is actually a well thought-out strategy to disenfranchise voters,” says Mukund Singh, a Dalit-Christian leader and in-charge at the RJD headquarters.

Not just the RJD but also the Congress and the CPI(ML), the two other major constituents of the INDIA bloc, have set up enrolment camps and a parallel campaign to help voters enrol as voters.

"Many Nepali-origin women married to Indians and residing in Kishanganj and adjoining areas for decades are being excluded for failure to produce birth certificates and land records to prove their Indian citizenship,” says Tamzeed Ahmad, a Congress spokesperson and local organiser in Kishanganj, 400 km from Patna. While the ECI has said a separate process would be arranged for Nepali and Bangladeshi-origin citizens, no such mechanism is in place on the ground, he tells National Herald on the phone.

The Congress has set up several camps to help people fill the forms but, he admits, officials have stopped accepting filled-up forms.

The CPI(ML) has also launched a Jan Abhiyan across the state. Student and youth wings of the party are actively assisting residents with form submissions. The party won 16 seats in the Bihar assembly in 2021 after putting up candidates in only 12 of the state's 38 districts, party sources point out. CPI(ML) cadres, in a campaign led by party MP Sudama Prasad, are also documenting the refusal of local officials to accept SIR forms.

Sudhakar Singh, RJD MP from Buxar, says, “This is not just a political fight. It’s a fight to defend the Constitution. We’ve petitioned the Supreme Court, approached the ECI and now we’re on the streets — to ensure our voters are not disenfranchised.”

Asked if the INDIA bloc would consider boycotting the election if the SIR remains compromised, Singh replied, “We are not escapists. We will fight this — inside institutions and outside. The people of Bihar value their vote. They won’t let it be taken away.’

With less than a week to go before the exercise concludes on 25 July, voters still look confused and officials confounded.

There is palpable anger at the ECI’s refusal to take people into confidence. There are many questions but no answers. Why is this revision happening now, especially when the voter list was already updated in January? What has changed since January? Who will it benefit — and who will lose out and how?

Who is managing the process? Why is there no accountability? Is this a voter roll update or a backdoor NRC and citizenship test? Even government officials seem unsure.

The timing, scale and unusual haste with which the exercise is being conducted have raised eyebrows — even among BJP supporters. Several sections of the Economically Backward Class (EBC) voters, considered part of the BJP’s support base, lack land records or class 10 certificates to prove they are indeed citizens and residents in their respective constituencies.

“What if my name doesn’t appear in the final list?” is a question which is being asked not only by Daulat Ram, a taxi driver, but also by a large segment of the population. “I was born here and have cast my vote in every election. After all these years they are now asking me to prove my citizenship!” exclaims a Rajput farmer at the RJD office in Buxar.

Different kinds of forms are in circulation. Some in English, others in Hindi. They are being distributed by BLOs, municipal employees and even safai karmacharis. The forms look nearly identical, but a closer examination reveals some details are missing or are different, which has only compounded the confusion.

In Patna, in several residential areas people have received two forms, even after one was filled up and collected by the BLO. Should they fill up the second form too? What happens if they don’t? Such doubts are adding to people’s anxiety.

In village after village, 40 per cent of adult males seem to have migrated for work. In Ekhara village in Hajipur, Ajit Anjum was told by a large number of women that the menfolk had left for Chennai in search of livelihoods. They return once a year to attend festivals or to cast their votes in elections. They hop from one city to another. Most of them have basic phones to make and receive calls. The ECI, however, wants them to download applications and upload them online with valid documents. What happens to them if they are disenfranchised?

Opposition parties believe that the ECI — knowingly or otherwise — is facilitating the political agenda of the ruling party in a way that could reshape Bihar’s voter base. The INDIA bloc has already taken to the streets, calling the process unconstitutional and demanding a rollback. There is seething anger and anxiety among the people. Sensing the mood, the state government is busy announcing one sop after another — free electricity, recruitment of teachers — to divert attention from SIR, growing law-lessness, unemployment and discontent.