Congress questions Bihar voter surge, poll body says 3 lakh people added after SIR

The Congress has raised questions over a sudden rise in Bihar’s voter numbers, pointing out that the Election Commission (EC) had announced 7.42 crore voters on October 6 while publishing the poll schedule, but post-poll releases showed the figure had climbed to 7.45 crore.

Election Commission officials responded on Saturday, explaining that the 7.42 crore figure was based on the final electoral roll published on September 30 following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Under election rules, any eligible citizen can apply to have their name included in the electoral roll up to ten days before the last date for filing nominations for each poll



phase. Applications received from October 1 until this deadline were processed, adding nearly three lakh voters to the roll.

“After examining all valid applications, the names of eligible voters were included so that no one was deprived of the right to vote,” an EC official said. The revised number, 7,45,26,858, was reflected in the EC’s post-poll press release.

High-level EC sources added that Bihar had around 7.43 crore voters on the day of the election announcement. The process of registering new eligible voters via Form 6 continued until a week before the final nomination deadlines, 10 October for Phase 1 and 13 October for Phase 2.