Nearly 30,000 Deleted Voters in Bihar Apply for Re-Entry: Election Commission

EC data shows close to 30,000 voters seek reinstatement, while over 13 lakh new electors file enrolment forms ahead of September 1 deadline.

With just two days left before the September 1 deadline, the Election Commission (EC) reported on Saturday that 29,872 voters—whose names were among 65 lakh deleted during the draft stage of Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls—have applied for re-inclusion. Additionally, 13.33 lakh first-time voters aged 18 and above have submitted enrolment applications.

As per the EC’s June 24 order, all 7.89 crore registered electors in Bihar were required to submit enumeration forms by July 25 to be included in the draft rolls released on August 1. The draft list featured 7.24 crore voters after 65 lakh names were removed on grounds such as death, relocation, being untraceable, or duplicate registration.

The EC set the period from August 1 to September 1 for voters to file claims and objections if they were wrongly excluded or if ineligible voters remained in the list. For the first time, the Commission released separate figures, showing 29,872 inclusion requests and 1,97,764 objections for exclusion as of Saturday morning. Of these, 33,771 cases had already been resolved. Booth Level Agents (BLAs) from political parties also submitted 103 objections and 25 inclusion requests.

The Commission confirmed it had received 13,33,793 applications from new electors and had processed 61,248 of them within a week. While claims and objections must be filed by September 1, Electoral Registration Officers have until September 25 to address them. The final electoral roll will be published on September 30.

Notably, the EC has required all voters registered since 2003 to submit documents verifying their date and/or place of birth to establish citizenship. Those born after July 1, 1987, must also provide parental birth details in line with the Citizenship Act, 1955—a shift from the earlier self-declaration practice in enrolment forms.

The SIR guidelines have been legally contested, with petitions pending before the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear the matter on September 1.