Opposition Slams EC After Draft Voter List Drops 65 Lakh Names, Patna Leads

The Election Commission on Friday published the revised draft rolls for Bihar after the just-concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise — an operation that resulted in the deletion of over 65 lakh voter registrations throughout the state.

The deletions have been made due to causes like death, permanent shifting out of the state of Bihar, inability to locate the voters at their registered addresses, or double registration by the same person.

Patna had the most at 3.95 lakh names removed, followed by Madhubani at 3.52 lakh, East Champaran at 3.16 lakh, and Gopalganj at 3.10 lakh deletions.

Thanks to this exercise, the number of Bihar's registered voters has decreased substantially — from around 7.9 crore before the revision to about 7.24 crore today.

The SIR was carried out in all 243 assembly constituencies and encompassed 90,817 polling stations across the state.

Detailed Breakdown of Removals of Voters

The cuts in the voter roll are distributed under three broad categories, as per data released by the Election Commission:

22.34 lakh voters were dropped from the rolls on account of deaths reported to the EC.

36.28 lakh entries were removed since the people had shifted out of the state permanently or were not traceable at their given addresses.

7.01 lakh voters were found to be enrolled in more than one place, and their duplicate entries have been eliminated.

The draft rolls have been posted publicly on the Election Commission's official website as well as in paper form in all 38 districts of Bihar.

Yet the upgrade is done in the midst of political tensions. Opposition parties have questioned the intention behind the SIR, terming it as a ploy to favor the ruling NDA before the key Bihar Assembly elections.

"Draft Electoral Rolls for Bihar, covering every one of the 243 assembly constituencies and 90,817 polling stations, are being made available to all political parties by 38 District Collectors at 11 AM today, i.e. 1 August 2025," the Election Commission was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

With the draft now in public domain, the Election Commission has opened the claims and objections window. The phase, which will remain open till September 1, provides citizens a chance to object to any deletions that they feel are incorrect or unjustified.

The officials made it clear that this is merely an initial list. The final electoral roll shall be published after all genuine claims and objections lodged during this redressal period have been disposed of.