
‘Infiltrators can't vote:' Shah backs Bihar SIR
Shah was addressing a public meeting after laying the foundation stone – along with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar – for the comprehensive development of Punaura Dham, believed to be the birth place of Sita, in Sitamarhi as a religious and tourist place of national importance at an estimated cost of ₹882 crore. He also flagged off an Amrit Bharat train to Delhi from Sitamarhi.
'Names of infiltrators must be removed from the voters' lists. They have no right to vote. But the RJD and the Congress are opposing the special intensive revision (SIR) because the names of infiltrators are being deleted from the lists,' Shah said.
'Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi Prasad and Rahul Gandhi should answer who they want to save — those from Bangladesh who devour jobs of the people of Bihar? Bihar people will never accept infiltrators who Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi want to use as votebank,' he added.
The home minister said that SIR was not happening for the first time. 'Rahul Gandhi should know that it happened during the time of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru also and the last time it was done was in 2003. Losing election after election, is Rahul Gandhi preparing an excuse for yet another loss?' he asked.
Kumar said that since November 2005, when he first came to power, a lot of development work has been done in Bihar and more would be done. 'The Centre has also been extending full cooperation. It also allocated substantial funds for development work in the state in the 2024 and 2025 Union budgets,' he added.
Shah also asked why the Rashtriya Janata Dal was not able to file any objection to the draft voters' list published on August 1. 'Rahul Gandhi moves around with a copy of the Constitution, but he should also read it. Infiltrators cannot be voters. Those who are not born in India cannot have the right to franchise,' he added.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) removed roughly 6.56 million names from the draft Bihar electoral roll published on August 1 on account of deaths, permanent shifts and multiple enrolment, marking potentially the largest single deletion of such entries in the history of independent India.
ECI said of the 6.5 million names missing from the rolls, deaths accounted for 2.2 million, people who permanently shifted or not found accounted for 3.6 million and people enrolled in multiple places accounted for 700,000.
In all, the draft electoral roll shrunk from 78.9 million to 72.4 million, ECI said.
The first phase of SIR ended on July 26. The final electoral roll will be published on September 30 for the assembly polls, scheduled later this year. The exercise began on July 1.
Opposition MPs have demonstrated against the exercise in Parliament, alleging it is an affront to electoral democracy. But ECI has dismissed these allegations. The Supreme Court earlier refused to stay the exercise but asked the commission to consider accepting Aadhaar cards and voter IDs as supporting documents. The next hearing is on August 13, and the top court has warned against mass exclusions, saying it will step in.
In a 25-minute speech, Shah also responded to the RJD's questions on what the Centre has done for Bihar raised in a press conference a day earlier. 'RJD wanted my reply. I am the son of a Baniya and have an account of every penny. When Laluji was the rail minister, barely ₹1,132 crore was annually spent in Bihar, while it reached ₹10,066 crore in just 2025-26 under Narendra Modi government,' he said, listing out the various rail, road, flood management, infrastructure and other development projects launched in the last two years.
He said that in the last six visits alone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave Bihar ₹83,000 crore for development projects.
'Tejashwi should also give account of the period when his father and mother ruled and the state was known for kidnappings, gangwars and crime only. If Tejashwi has anything to share, he should come to the same ground and tell the people about it,' he added.
He also alleged that the RJD and Congress opposed Operation Sindoor in Parliament. 'There was a time when the entire nation reverberated with bomb blasts and India could do nothing. Now, this is the Modi government and we did surgical strike, air strike and recently after the Pahalgam terror attack, wiped out terror networks across the border,' he added.
Shah and Kumar performed the bhoomi pooja and laid the first brick of the temple amid chanting of mantras by saints. Soil from 21 pilgrim places and water from 11 rivers had been brought for the ritual and an exhibition of paintings depicting life of Sita was also organised.
Union ministers Nityanand Rai, Lalan Singh, Giriraj Singh, Satish Chandra Dubey, Raj Bhushan Choudhary, Bihar deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, Rajya Sabha MP and Janata Dal (United) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, Bihar minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Mangal Pandey and several MPs, MLAs and MLCs were present on the occasion.
Senior RJD leaderSudhakar Singh questioned why the BJP, a political party, was fighting for the Election Commission, which is a constitutional body. 'Our struggle for transparent SIR is against the EC and they should respond to the charges.Shah also took the credit for the Punaura Dham Mandir, while the Centre has not given any fund for that. All the investment is of the Bihar government,' he added.
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