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'Not your job': Owaisi blasts EC over citizenship check in Bihar voter roll revision
Asaduddin Owaisi said AIMIM's Bihar unit chief, Akhtarul Iman, had moved the Supreme Court regarding the SIR.
With just days to go before the Bihar assembly election 2025 gets underway, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi came out strongly against the Election Commission's handling of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, accusing the panel of overstepping its mandate by veering into citizenship verification.
According to Owaisi, verifying citizenship is the responsibility of the Union Home Ministry, not the Election Commission of India.
In Bihar, a controversy is brewing over the SIR, a process that has sparked allegations of rushed deletions and citizenship profiling.
"So, there was so much pressure on the BLOs (booth level officers)), and the dangerous thing is that they wrote in the notification that if they go to someone's house two or three times and don't find the voter, then the voter will inform their ERO (Electoral Registration Officer), or the ERO will inform the competent authority under the Foreigners Citizenship Act. So, tell me, how will this happen? (EC) has nothing to do with this — it is not your job to check citizenship. That is the job of the MHA," he added.
Supreme Court steps in
Concerns over the SIR reached the Supreme Court this week, where the bench directed the Bihar State Legal Services Authority (BSLSA) to intervene and assist excluded voters in filing appeals.
To ensure free legal aid to the persons excluded from the final voters' list to file appeals against their exclusion, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that BSLSA is to issue necessary communication to the District Legal Services Authorities to ensure the availability of paralegal volunteers and legal aid counsels who can assist the excluded persons in filing appeals.
Owaisi stated that AIMIM's Bihar unit chief, Akhtarul Iman, had approached the Supreme Court regarding the SIR.
EC defends SIR
The Election Commission defended the SIR exercise, stating that it is part of its constitutional duty to ensure that "no eligible voter is left out, and no ineligible voter is included."
The poll panel said that regular meetings were conducted with political parties "to explain the SIR process and keep them informed throughout".
"SIR exercise was carried out in line with Article 326 of the Constitution and ECI's motto of 'no eligible voter to be left out, and no ineligible person to be included in the Electoral rolls," the release said.
It added that if any eligible person still wishes to apply for inclusion of their name in the Electoral Roll, they can submit an application up to ten days before the last date for filing nominations for the election.
The Election Commission had said in a press release that 65 lakh voters were removed from the draft list, and the number of electors in the draft list as of August 1, 2025, stood at 7.24 crore.
