Successful SIR led to high voter turnout in 2025 Bihar polls: CEC

The CEC pointed out that following the mammoth exercise, conducted over a three-month period during which around 7 million names were knocked off the electoral rolls, a sharp rise was seen in the voter turnout when assembly polls were held soon afterwards.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday asserted that the “successful” special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar last year led to a significant rise in voter turnout in the assembly polls that followed.

Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar addresses the media at Patna airport on Sunday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

Addressing mediapersons at Patna airport, the CEC, who is on a two-day tour of the state, said thatthe voting percentage in the 2025 Bihar assembly polls was not only the highest in the state since Independence but also higher than turnouts witnessed in the general elections in some advanced countries such as the US, the UK, France, Spain and Japan.

“Bihar is the land where Vaishali, the cradle of democracy, is situated. We take pride in the fact that the SIR was conducted here successfully for the first time,” Kumar said.

The CEC pointed out that following the mammoth exercise, conducted over a three-month period during which around 7 million names were knocked off the electoral rolls, a sharp rise was seen in the voter turnout when assembly polls were held soon afterwards.

According to officials, the CEC is scheduled to interact with around 500 booth-level officers (BLOs) at the Sushma Swaraj Auditorium, Nalanda University in Rajgir on Monday to hear them about their ground-level challenges and suggest measures to make the electoral process more effective and accessible, a PTI report said.

The CEC will also launch the Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) 2.0 and ECINET at a conference in Patna during his visit. The Election Commission had launched electoral literacy clubs in 2018 under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation Program (SVEEP) programme to familiarise students and young citizens with democratic values, the electoral process, and the role and functioning of the EC.

More than 400 educational institutions from across Bihar will send thousands of students and teachers, along with vice-chancellors and college and school principals to attend the meet.

The initiative seeks to tap into India’s vast educational network — nearly 1.5 million schools, 250 million students, 10 million teachers, about 1,500 universities and 70,000 higher education institutions — to build factual and experiential understanding of the electoral process among young people, and empower them as “ambassadors” of electoral awareness within their families, institutions and communities.

The CEC will unveil the ELC 2.0 logo and its new working framework, alongside presentations on India’s electoral process and the ECINET platform.

“In view of the changing information and communication environment and the growing digital engagement of young people, the ELC programme is now being redefined as ELC 2.0. The objective is to develop ELCs in schools, colleges and universities as active, experiential and digitally enabled platforms operating throughout the year,” officials said.

A large number of students, teachers, vice-chancellors, principals and heads of institutions from more than 400 educational institutions across Bihar will participate in the conference.

Senior officials of the Election Commission, along with Bihar’s chief secretary, development commissioner, additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries of the education, health, science and technology, and technical education departments, will also attend the conference.

During the conference, the CEC will unveil its logo and the new working framework will be introduced. Presentations will also be made on the vision, mission, key features and framework of ELC 2.0, as well as India’s electoral process and the ECINET platform, they said.

“The ELC 2.0 aims to use this network to develop factual and experiential understanding of the electoral process among young people and empower them to become ambassadors of electoral awareness within their families, institutions and communities. A dedicated ELC registration and onboarding portal has been developed for this purpose and will be accessible through the EC website and the ECINET App,” they said.

The CEC will also visit Sitamarhi, Madhubani and Vaishali to interact with the district election machinery, besides visiting sites of Bihar’s historical and cultural heritage.