Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday accused the Election Commission of ignoring alleged large-scale irregularities in Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He claimed that the party’s Booth Level Agents (BLAs) submitted nearly 89 lakh complaints, all of which were rejected by the poll body.
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar, however, issued a detailed rebuttal, stating that no authorised Congress BLAs had filed complaints in the legally prescribed format.
Khera Alleges Massive Deletions
At a press briefing, Khera, who heads the Congress media and publicity department, asserted, “The EC keeps getting news planted through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the SIR to the EC.”
He further alleged that Congress BLAs were told their objections could not be accepted collectively. “When our BLAs went to file complaints, their complaints were turned down by the EC. The EC categorically told our BLAs that complaints could be accepted by individuals only, not by political parties,” Khera claimed, as per news agency PTI.
According to Khera, the names of nearly 65 lakh voters were deleted across 90,540 booths in Bihar. Of these, he said 25 lakh were listed as migrants, 22 lakh marked deceased, and around 9.7 lakh were removed for being absent at their given addresses. “The total number of booths where more than 100 names were deleted is 20,368, and the number of booths where more than 200 names were deleted is 1,988. There are 7,613 booths where more than 70 per cent of women’s names were deleted,” he said.
He also alleged cases of duplication: “There are plenty of cases where a single voter has been given two EPIC numbers. We also have their receipts, and now this fact cannot be denied.”
Congress Demands Fresh Verification
Khera said the deletions raised doubts over the EC’s intentions and demanded door-to-door verification to correct what he called “large-scale irregularities.” He claimed that Congress BLOs had filed objections with district election officers on behalf of affected voters, but these were ignored.
The party has sought a complete re-conduct of the SIR process, with Khera flagging booths where women voters were disproportionately removed, including 635 booths where more than 75 per cent of migrant deletions were women.
CEO Rejects Charges, Cites Supreme Court Order
Responding to the allegations, the Bihar CEO’s office denied that any Congress BLAs had submitted claims or objections in the official format. A press note issued in Hindi said:
1. District Congress Committee presidents submitted letters to District Election Officers in the last 1–2 days alleging deletion of around 89 lakh names from Bihar’s electoral rolls.
2. As per rules and directions of the Election Commission, objections to deletions can only be raised under Rule 13 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 through Form 7, or by BLAs of recognised political parties using the prescribed format along with a declaration under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
3. The Supreme Court, in its interim order dated 22 August 2025, also clarified that objections by 12 political parties must be submitted in the prescribed format to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer.
4. Since the objections submitted by District Congress Committee presidents were not in the required format, District Election Officers have forwarded them to the concerned Electoral Registration Officers for appropriate action.
इंडियन नेशनल कांग्रेस की दिनांक 31.8.2025 की प्रेस कॉन्फ्रेंस के संबंध में प्रेस विज्ञप्ति @ECISVEEP pic.twitter.com/EhxkY20kVP
— Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar (@CEOBihar) August 31, 2025
5. Given that the objections concern nearly 89 lakh voters, the Electoral Registration Officers will, under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, exercise discretion and may seek affidavits from the Congress district presidents before taking any decision on deletions.
‘Duplicate Claims Premature’: Bihar CEO
On allegations of duplicate voters, the CEO’s office reiterated that the current draft rolls published under SIR are not final. “These parameters, without documentary and field verification, cannot conclusively prove duplication. In Bihar, especially rural constituencies, it is common for multiple individuals to share identical names, parental names, and even similar ages. The Supreme Court has recognised such demographic similarities as insufficient proof of duplication without field inquiry,” the statement said, as per PTI.
The office added that the Election Commission uses ERONET 2.0 software to flag Demographically Similar Entries, which are then subjected to ground verification. It stressed: “Merely giving out a number on an imaginary basis does not establish any fact as correct. The presence of some provisional duplicate entries in the draft roll does not invalidate the SIR exercise.”
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