Voter Roll Revision Needs Sound Reason

Asking voters to prove their eligibility afresh can disenfranchise large sections in a poor state like Bihar where lakhs work outside. The Election Commission must explain why it's required

- MANOJ KUMAR JHA

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar just weeks before the likely notification of assembly elections. Such revisions, when conducted this close to polling, are extraordinary and must meet a high bar of justification. Yet no explanation, let alone evidence, has been offered for why this exercise is necessary now. Instead, the justification has taken a familiar and troubling shape: vague and unsubstantiated claims about "illegal voters" and "cross-border infiltration".

If this is not a damning indictment of the ministry of home affairs' failure in protecting our borders, then it is definitely dog-whistling to create a pretext for the possibility of large-scale manipulation. The pattern is unmistakable and, to the opposition parties, the objective seems transparent: to manipulate voter rolls in a manner that systematically excludes minorities and the poor.

This is not the first time such tactics have been deployed. In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and subsequent state elections in Maharashtra, lakhs of names were added to the electoral rolls in a short period. Opposition parties have raised valid concerns about the sudden spike and the unusually high late-evening turnout surges. The ECI has refused to release digital, machine-readable electoral rolls or polling-day CCTV footage.

Also, ahead of the elections, right-wing commentators and academics belted out dubious 'studies' raising unfounded alarms about "illegal voters". The exercise was repeated in Delhi right before the 2025 assembly elections. No other official data supported these claims.