An advertisement published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in newspapers on Sunday has sparked a controversy over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Roll in Bihar for verifying the eligibility of each elector with full participation of all political parties.

Through the advertisement, the ECI announced that the voters, whose names are already in the last intensive revision of Electoral Roll on 01.01.2003, have to simply fill the Enumeration Form and submit it.

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Addressing those whose names are not in the voter list published in 2003, the ECI stated: “If you provide the required documents, it will be easy for the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to process the application.”

“If you are unable to provide the required documents, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) can take a decision based on local investigation or evidence of other documents,” it added.

This particular clause has been a bone of contention for the political parties in Bihar.

Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram said that the advertisement highlights not only the incompetence of the Election Commission but also casts doubt on its impartiality, suggesting it may be unfairly assisting the ruling parties in Bihar. “What is the relevance of this entire process? Is this a planned conspiracy to remove people’s names from the voter list to benefit some political parties? If the ERO has a final say, won’t the BJP and JD(U) pressurise them into making arbitrary changes,” the Congress leader questioned.

He pointed out that the voter list was recently updated in Bihar. The final version was released 6 January, 2025, after a process including home visits, on-site checks, and a public review of challenges. The results were shared with political parties.

Rajesh Ram said: “The fact that this process has already been completed in January makes repeating it right before the election highly suspicious. The Election Commission should immediately revoke this decision, especially given the worrying reports from Bihar’s assembly constituencies that people are unable to fill out the forms independently.”

General Secretary of the CPI(ML) Dipankar Bhattacharya stated that the Special Intensive Revision process lacked transparency from the start. Each new announcement makes the process even more opaque and arbitrary. The ‘changes’ only reinforce our belief that this is a misguided and unwanted plan, strengthening our call for its complete withdrawal.

Bihar CEO Vinod Singh Gunjyal said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign is running smoothly on the ground, strictly adhering to the guidelines issued on 24 June, 2025, with no modifications.

He said that the draft electoral roll to be published on 1 August 2025 will include the names of only those persons whose counting forms are received before 25 July 2025. Voters can submit their documents anytime before 25 July 2025. Documents can also be submitted during the period of claims and objections.

“People should be wary of false and misleading information being deliberately spread by certain individuals who haven’t even bothered to read the 24 June, 2025 SIR order,” he added.