The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, termed as “votebandi” by the opposition parties, has caused a tumult among the “lower” castes. They are upset and anxious. The upper castes, on the other hand, are calm and confident. Anxiety in one camp and calm in the other exposes the Election Commission of India (ECI) conduct. There is unease in the localities of the lower castes as they fear that their names may be deleted from the electoral rolls. People from the upper castes are sure that no one can dare delete their names.
Ranjit Jha and Bablu Jha, chatting near a temple at Simra, a village in Naugachhia sub-division of Bhagalpur district, have filled up the form stipulated for scrutiny of voters and have also attached their domicile certificates as supporting evidence. The Booth Level Officer (BLO) visited their home, got the form filled out and took it with him. But he didn’t give any acknowledgement. No, they didn’t face any problems in filling in the form. They sounded assured and confident as if they knew that the crisis was not on their side but on the other side.
In the neighbouring village of Pakda, Santosh’s experience was markedly different. Santosh is incensed that the BLO is not visiting the homes of the poor. Instead, he is asking them to come to the local school to fill out the form and submit it. “Why is the BLO not visiting the poor households? We also vote, don’t we? He is visiting only the homes of important people,” he says without concealing his anger.
Santosh’s unease serves as a reminder of Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s observations in the Constituent Assembly. He was concerned that someday the nation might have a government that would deprive the Adivasis, Dalits, Backwards and minorities of their right to vote. Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on 15 June 1949, he said, “Franchise is a most fundamental thing in a democracy … to prevent injustice being done by provincial Governments to people other than those who belong to the province racially, linguistically and culturally … the whole of the election machinery should be in the hands of a Central Election Commission … so that no injustice may be done to any citizen in India.”
But what if the Central Election Commission itself loses its credibility? Currently, it clearly seems to be favouring the rich and the powerful. It is not even pretending that it is impartial. It is openly pushing the agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. The SIR has been underway in Bihar since 25 June, following the ECI notification on 24 June 2025. A vast majority of the rural populace even now does not know what is happening and why. Most think that voter cards are being made afresh, for which a form has to be filled out and a proof of identity has to be submitted.
Prem Mahto from Ekaara village in Hajipur parliamentary constituency is a manual labourer. “A new voter-list is being prepared. Have you deposited your form?” I ask him. Prem says that he has heard about it. Some villagers told him that voter cards are being made afresh. Prem knows nothing more. He doesn’t know what he has to do and how. No BLO has visited his locality or home. Prem has a voter card, Aadhar card and also a MGNREGA card. He doesn’t have any other documents. When told that the three cards would not be enough to get him enrolled as a voter, because those aren’t recognized by the ECI, he is clearly disappointed. “This means that I won’t be able to vote. No one cares for the poor,” he says.
A huge chunk of Bihar’s population, including Adivasis, Dalits, EBCs, BCs and minorities, identify with Prem’s helplessness. Most of the people, especially those from these sections, don’t have any of the 11 documents the ECI has asked for. They don’t even know what some of the recognized documents mean: matriculation certificate, birth certificate, passport, NRC (National Register of Citizens), land ownership document, forest rights certificate.
The ECI’s high-handedness will make the slogans of the Dalitbahujan like “Vote ka raj, matlab chhote ka raj [The rule of vote means the rule of the weak]”, “Vote hamara, raj tumhara nahin chalega [Our vote, your rule won’t do)”, “Jiski jitni sankhya bharee, uski utnee hissedhari (The more your number, the higher your representation)” and “Pichde paaven sau mein saath (Backwards should get 60 of 100)” meaningless. For when the names of members of these communities won’t figure in the voter-list, how will their votes matter?
This may also render the caste census meaningless. If the right to vote will be confined to the educated and the propertied class, what will counting the population of the deprived classes achieve? They won’t have the required number of votes to assert their claim to representation.
The anarchy and chaos marking the filling out of the voter-list revision form came to the fore only after YouTube channels and news websites began reporting from the ground. The mainstream media, dominated by the Savarnas, woke up only after the irregularities and high-handedness in the process were reported on social media. The opposition leaders meeting the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), the call for a Bihar Bandh on 9 July and the Supreme Court’s rap, led to a sudden jump in the number of forms being filled in.
The opposition parties, civil society organizations and persons conversant with the election process have described the SIR as undemocratic, unconstitutional and impossible to conduct. The Supreme Court has raised questions on the exercise. But the ECI is using every trick in its bag to implement this measure that violates all the rules. Media reports are regularly exposing how this massive fraud is being committed right under the nose of the government and the administration. Forms without photographs and documents and without signatures are being uploaded. Instead of a pre-filled enumeration form carrying the voter’s photograph, blank forms are being filled out. Acknowledgement is not being given – this when the ECI guidelines clearly mention at the very top that the BLO will visit the homes of voters with two copies of the form and will help them fill in the details. They will keep one copy and give the other to the voter as acknowledgement. But nowhere has this guideline been followed.
When his attention was drawn to this irregularity, Rituraj Pratap Singh, the newly appointed SDM of Naugachhia Block, who happens to be an IAS officer, maintained that the BLOs are carrying two copies of the form and leaving one with the voters as acknowledgement. However, not only the voters but also the BLOs are denying this claim. A case was registered against well-known journalist Ajit Anjum in the Balia block of Begusarai district after he exposed the fraud in his ground reports from Vaishali, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Araria, Kishanganj and other districts. Instead of plugging the loopholes and correcting the irregularities, the ECI is trying to hide them. It seems to be bent on implementing its undemocratic and unconstitutional decision.
In fact, the process has been speeded up and the number of forms submitted is shown as increasing every day. The ECI has said that with 11 days to go for the end of the exercise, 6.6 crore of the 7.89 crore voters in Bihar have filled out the forms and 5.74 crore of these have been uploaded on its website. What the commission wants to achieve by getting partly filled forms uploaded is anybody’s guess. Does it want to push out a majority of Adivasi, Dalit, Backward, Extremely Backward, minority and poor voters out of the electoral rolls? Following a public uproar, the ECI has announced that voters can fill out the forms even without photographs and documents. But the ECI will need later one of the 11 documents listed in its notification. The SDM of Naugachhia has made it clear that though forms can be filled out without photographs or documents, the voters will ultimately have to furnish the stipulated documents. They have only been allowed to fill out the forms for now but documents are mandatory. From what the ECI and the administration are saying, it is clear that after filling out the forms, the voters will be at the mercy of the ECI. They won’t even have an acknowledgement to make claims or raise objections after the publication of the draft rolls. All this indicates that the SIR has a sinister plot.
The exercise is being used to polarize society along communal lines. The propaganda machinery of the RSS and the BJP has launched a whispering campaign, telling the Hindus that they have no cause for worry and that the exercise is meant to purge Bangladeshi, Rohingya and Nepali infiltrators. A slightly amended template is being used for upper-caste Hindus. They are being told that they should harbour no apprehensions and that only the names of voters backing Lalu and the Communists would be deleted. The pro-government news agency ANI, recently, ran a story quoting sources that a large number of Bangladeshis, Rohingyas and Nepalis have been identified in the voter-list. But the agency did not name any assembly constituency, polling booth or village where the names of people of these nationalities were found on the voter-list. When leader of opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Tejashwi Yadav’s reaction to this baseless news was sought, he kicked up a storm by saying that the ‘sutra’ (sources) that supplied this piece of information to ANI were ‘mutra’ (urine). He added that these were very sources which had claimed during Operation Sindoor that India had occupied Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
Be that as it may, the BJP-led Union Government and the pro-Savarna media have joined hands to implement SIR in Bihar, throwing the electoral process into disarray and creating tensions. The exercise has been launched in a tearing hurry, without requisite preparations. Besides the people, the BLOs are also the victims of the ECI’s whim. Some of them are being forced to work for 12-13 hours without a break. They are under great pressure to meet targets.
One BLO has died while the BDO of Baarsoyee block has resigned. It is clear that the ECI and the local administration have ignored the ground realities and have inhumanly implemented the measure.
Confusion over the enumeration forms persists. The ECI says that two copies of the form are being issued for every voter – one to be retained by the BLO and the other to be handed over to the voter as acknowledgement. But the ground reality is that the BLOs are being given only one copy of the form. The voters are demanding acknowledgement. But the BLOs do not have a second copy to leave with them as a receipt.
Then there are complaints in many places about forms being filled out without the consent of the voters and even without their knowledge. This has seriously compromised the transparency and legality of the entire exercise. The opposition has no option but to oppose the undemocratic decision of the ECI with their full might.
(Translated from the original Hindi by Amrish Herdenia)
