4 days ago
NGO Alleges ‘Statistical Purge' in Challenge to EC's 65 Lakh Deletions from Bihar Draft Rolls
Visakhapatnam: The Election Commission (EC) is facing a legal and procedural challenge over its decision to remove approximately 65 lakh voters from Bihar's electoral rolls following a month-long 'special intensive revision' (SIR).
A Maharashtra-based civil society group, Vote for Democracy (VFD), has presented a report to the Supreme Court alleging the exercise was a "statistical purge" riddled with anomalies.
The EC maintains that the process was a transparent and successful clean-up of the rolls, conducted with "overwhelming participation" from electors.
The revision, the first of its kind in Bihar since 2003, concluded with 7.24 crore voters re-affirming their eligibility and 65 lakh (8.31% of the electorate) marked for deletion.
A one-month period for claims and objections to the draft rolls, published on August 1, is currently underway.
The VFD's report, titled " Dysfunctional ECI and Weaponisation of India's Election System" alleges that the EC's own daily data reveals patterns that are logistically and statistically improbable. The analysis points to several anomalies, including:
Sudden data surges: The number of "untraceable" voters reportedly surged by 771% in 24 hours between July 22 and July 23. The number of "permanently shifted" voters increased by over 15 lakh in three days (July 21-24), while the number of identified "deceased" electors jumped by 2,11,462 in a single day, an outcome the report deems logistically impossible.
Data discrepancies: On July 22-23, the VFD analysis notes that for every one new enumeration form received from the field, more than four voters were identified for removal, suggesting the deletion process operated independently of form collection.
Opaque reporting: The report claims that as deletion numbers increased, the ECI's reporting became less granular, with precise figures being rounded off or grouped under a single "Merged Data" heading after July 22.
Static figures: Between July 14 and July 17, figures for "probably deceased" and "probably permanently shifted" remained completely static, which the report argues is improbable for a dynamic, real-time field exercise.
The VFD report also raises concerns about the potential disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, identifying "hotspot districts" with deletion rates far exceeding the state average. These include Gopalganj (15.10%), Purnia (12.08%), Kishanganj (11.82%) and Madhubani (10.44%), areas with large migrant labourer and minority populations.
Meanwhile, in its official communications, the EC has described the SIR as a necessary and structured process to update rolls that have seen significant changes over 20 years. The commission states the goal was to ensure "no eligible citizen is left out while no ineligible person is included".
According to the EC, the 65 lakh voters who did not submit enumeration forms and were excluded from the draft rolls fall into three categories: 36 lakh permanently shifted or not found (4.59%), 22 lakh deceased (2.83%) and seven lakh enrolled in multiple places (0.89%).
The EC's stated procedure involved door-to-door visits from nearly one lakh booth-level officers between June 25 and July 26.
The commission also emphasised the involvement of political parties, stating that lists of unverified electors were shared with 12 major parties on July 20 for their booth-level agents to review.
The EC asserts that the current claims and objections period, which runs until September 1, constitutes due process and that "no deletion will be made without due inquiry and providing the concerned person a fair hearing". As of August 15, two weeks into the period, the EC reported that 28,370 claims and objections had been received directly from electors.
The final electoral roll for the 2025 state assembly elections is scheduled to be published on September 30. The resolution of the conflicting accounts presented by the EC and VFD now rests with the commission's internal appellate process and the Supreme Court.
