EC Releases List of 65 Lakh Voters Deleted from Bihar Rolls Following Supreme Court Order
Election Commission of India has released a comprehensive list detailing the names of approximately 65 lakh voters whose names were deleted from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar following the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The publication of the list, which has been made available on the commission’s official website for public scrutiny, comes in direct compliance with an August 14 order from the Supreme Court. A new, dedicated link has also been activated on the EC Bihar website to facilitate easy access for citizens wanting to check their status.
The move follows a directive from the nation’s top court, which mandated that the poll body publish a district-wise list of all omitted voters and explicitly state the reason for each deletion, categorizing them under death, migration, or double registration. The court’s intervention aims to ensure maximum transparency and provide a clear, manual recourse for individuals to understand why their names were removed from the voter roll.
To ensure wide dissemination, the Supreme Court also ordered the commission to display the booth-wise list of removed voters at every District Election Officer’s office, BLO (Booth Level Officer) office, and Panchayat office. The directive further instructed the ECI to publicize the information through advertisements across newspapers, radio, and television, and for District Election Officers to share the list on their social media platforms.
This development unfolds against the backdrop of a fierce political battle between the opposition and the Election Commission. On the same day the list was made public, the ECI rebuked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his “vote chori” (vote theft) allegations, giving him a seven-day ultimatum to either furnish proof via a sworn affidavit or issue a public apology.
The commission has strongly defended the integrity of the SIR exercise, while opposition parties, led by Gandhi, have accused the poll body of deliberately manipulating the voter list to benefit the ruling BJP ahead of the state’s assembly elections. The public release of the deletion list is now a critical focal point in this ongoing dispute over the credibility of the electoral process in Bihar.
