Samrat Choudhary, the chief minister of Bihar, accused opposition parties on Sunday of spreading a "false alarm" over voter deletions that occurred during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral registers prior to the Assembly election in 2025. He stated there was no evidence to support claims that eligible voters had been unlawfully removed.
His comments coincide with a broader controversy surrounding the Election Commission following a report detailing the poll panel's complaints about the countrywide SIR's decisions. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been questioned by opposition parties, and some have called for his resignation.
Choudhary brought up Rahul Gandhi's campaign in Bihar the previous year while speaking at a press conference in Patna. He claimed that although the Congress leader had claimed that names were being illegally removed from the rolls, "no case of illegal deletion could be proved."
According to Choudhary, the Bihar review revealed that 22.34 lakh voters had passed away, 36.28 lakh had relocated or were not present at their listed homes, and almost seven lakh had registered at multiple locations. He stated that those names had been deleted and asserted that no petitions or counterclaims contesting the deletions had been received.
OVERSIGHT OF ELECTION COMMISSION DECISIONS
After The Indian Express revealed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections to poll panel judgments at least 14 times over a ten-month period, the political confrontation escalated. Voter enrollment and deletion, appeals against voter-related orders, access to electoral roll data, and a SIR-related declaration in the online Form 6 application procedure were among the reported disputes.
The Election Commission stated that all three commissioners unanimously accepted their final SIR directives and that disagreements are a typical feature of its discussions. Additionally, it has stated that the declaration is a separate requirement under its SIR instructions and that the statutory Form 6 is unaltered.
The Commission's handling of the reported concerns and the revision process have been questioned by opposition parties. In response, Choudhary stated that the claims made during Bihar's SIR had not been proven.
