Bihar polls will be held before Nov 22, says CEC

Chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said on Sunday said that elections in Bihar will be held before November 22, when the term of the state assembly ends, and claimed that the controversial special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the state "purified" voters' list after 22 years.

- Anirban Guha Roy

"Bihar has 243 assembly constituencies—2 for STs and 38 for SCs. The term of the Bihar Legislative Assembly ends on November 22, 2025, and elections will be held before that time ... The Election Commission trained booth-level officers for the first time ... SIR was launched on June 24, 2025, and completed by the deadline ... " Kumar said at a press conference in Patna at the end of his two-day state visit.

Hailing the successful completion of SIR in Bihar, the CEC said: "We have an ERO (Electoral Registration Officer) in each of the 243 constituencies. They were assisted by 90,207 BLOs in completing the exercise, which has purified the voters' list after 22 years."

The last time an intensive revision of electoral rolls took place in Bihar was in 2003.

Reacting to criticism on the timing of conducting SIR ahead of elections, the CEC said: "If you go by the Representation of the People Act, it is legal for the Election Commission to conduct the revision before every election and is required to do so under the law. For someone to say that the revision should be conducted after the elections is unjustified."

He added: "Approximately 65 lakh names were deleted earlier, and now 3.66 lakh names have been deleted, which are of ineligible voters ... If anyone has any complaint, they can appeal to the District Magistrate ...