I would argue that the most important issue that will determine how I view the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls presently underway in Bihar is the number of people whose names have been deleted or — and mark this carefully — have failed to be included. I fear the total could be considerably greater than what we’ve been told. Let’s look at the details to see if you share my concern.
On August 1, the Election Commission of India (ECI) released the draft rolls confirming that 6.56 million names have been deleted, nearly 9% of those who were there before the exercise began. This is already disturbing.
As HT has earlier revealed, this means that as things stand there are fewer people registered to vote in Bihar than was the case during the 2024 national elections and the 2020 assembly elections. In fact, with the exception of the two assembly elections of 2005, the total number of registered voters in Bihar has increased with every election since 1977. That won’t be the case when the assembly elections are held later this year.
Given Bihar’s high fertility rate, this is perplexing, to put it mildly. This newspaper reports that between 2001 and 2011 the number of adults increased by 28.5%. Isn’t it odd that the total number of registered voters should fall rather than increase in 2025?
However, the situation could get a lot worse and Yogendra Yadav, the national convener of the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, believes it probably will. He says there are three reasons why the deletions could shoot above 6.56 million. First, the booth level officers may choose not to recommend some or many provisional names. They have the power to do so. Second, many people who have uploaded their forms might not be able to provide the requisite documentation to support them. Again, they will be deleted. Third, electoral registration officers are entitled to make local inquiries and strike out names. They may well. These are three cogent reasons why 6.56 million is only an initial figure. The final one could be sizeably more.
{{/usCountry}}However, the situation could get a lot worse and Yogendra Yadav, the national convener of the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, believes it probably will. He says there are three reasons why the deletions could shoot above 6.56 million. First, the booth level officers may choose not to recommend some or many provisional names. They have the power to do so. Second, many people who have uploaded their forms might not be able to provide the requisite documentation to support them. Again, they will be deleted. Third, electoral registration officers are entitled to make local inquiries and strike out names. They may well. These are three cogent reasons why 6.56 million is only an initial figure. The final one could be sizeably more.
{{/usCountry}}Now so far, we have only been analysing names that have been deleted and their impact on the electoral rolls and the electoral trajectory of Bihar. But what about the names that haven’t been included? This aspect of the matter hasn’t got the attention it deserves.
Yadav has analysed this using the government’s own population projections which, he points out, are often used by ECI itself to verify and double check its own electoral rolls. He has worked out the percentage of the adult population in Bihar on the electoral rolls both before the SIR as well as after the SIR. On June 24, it was 97%. Now, it’s 88%. In other words, it has shrunk by 9%. He says that’s almost 9.4 million, one-and-a-half times more than the 6.56 million figure reported by ECI as deleted names. In other words, nearly three million people, who should have been included in the electoral rolls, have not been enrolled.
It has been over a week since Yadav published his findings. As yet they haven’t been contradicted or even questioned by the ECI. How do you interpret that silence? Frankly, I don’t like the sound of it.
Yadav draws two conclusions which I will leave you to ponder over. He fears that the total number deleted or not included in Bihar could touch 15 million. One can only hope he’s wrong. However, his second concern should worry all of us. Even if you limit yourself to the nearly 9% deletions that the ECI has confirmed in Bihar, this would equate at a national level — when the SIR happens nationwide — to 90 million names being deleted. That’s one-and-a-half-times the population of Britain or France!
Finally, I have no doubt the issue I began with is the right way to judge Bihar’s SIR. Do you agree?
Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story. The views expressed are personal.