Bihar Drops 47 Lakh Voters from Final List Ahead of 2025 Assembly Elections

The Election Commission of India has released the final voter list for the Bihar Assembly elections 2025Bihar, removing 47 lakh names after a sweeping, months-long cleanup that exposed widespread irregularities — from dead voters to foreign nationals on the rolls. The final count stands at 74.2 million eligible voters, down from 78.9 million in June, in what officials call the most rigorous electoral roll revision in the state’s history. But for many families across rural Bihar, the removal of a loved one’s name isn’t just bureaucratic — it’s a threat to their political voice.

How the Purge Unfolded

The Election Commission of India launched its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in June 2024, deploying nearly 100,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to knock on doors across Bihar’s 38 districts. Their mission: verify every voter’s existence, residence, and eligibility. The results were startling. Of the 7.89 crore names on the original list, 12.55 lakh belonged to deceased individuals — nearly 1.6% of the total electorate. Another 17.37 lakh voters, nearly 2.2%, had permanently moved out of state. And 5.76 lakh were duplicates — same person, two addresses. That’s 35.68 lakh names gone before the claims and objections phase even began.

What followed was a flood of applications. Over 16.93 lakh people petitioned to be added back to the rolls. More than 16.56 lakh of those used Form-6 to register as new voters between August and September. Meanwhile, 2.17 lakh people asked to be removed — some out of confusion, others, critics suspect, under pressure. The final tally? A net loss of 47 lakh names.

Who Got Left Behind?

The most controversial discovery? Foreign nationals. The ECI confirmed that voters registered under fake documents from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar had slipped through the cracks — likely due to lax documentation checks in border districts like Supaul, Madhubani, and Katihar. Their names are now flagged for removal after further verification.

Then there’s the silent crisis: migrant laborers. Around 35.7 lakh voters — 4.5% of the electorate — weren’t found at their registered addresses. Many are seasonal workers in Delhi, Mumbai, or Punjab. They didn’t miss the door-to-door visit because they were hiding. They were working. The ECI allowed forms to be submitted via WhatsApp or family members, but that solution didn’t reach everyone. In villages where mobile networks are spotty, and literacy rates low, many simply didn’t know they had to act.

Political Firestorm

The Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), didn’t hold back. "Even the exclusion of 1 per cent of voters per constituency would translate to around 3,200 names being removed in each segment," he said in a public address. "Now we’re talking 5 percent. That’s not cleaning the list — that’s silencing communities."

His warning carries weight. In constituencies like Purnia or Gopalganj, where voter turnout often hinges on a few thousand votes, losing 3,000 names could shift the outcome. Opposition parties allege the purge disproportionately targeted areas where their support is strongest — often rural, low-income, and Muslim-majority. The ECI denies any bias, pointing to the fact that 21.53 lakh names were added back during the claims process — a sign, they say, that the system works.

But the Supreme Court took notice. In a hearing in late August, justices explicitly urged the ECI to treat Aadhaar, voter ID, and ration cards as mutually verifiable documents. "We cannot have voters excluded because they lack one paper while others have three," said one judge. The ruling could reshape how voter identity is confirmed nationwide — not just in Bihar.

Why This Matters Beyond Bihar

Bihar’s voter list revision is a stress test for India’s entire electoral system. With 968 million registered voters nationwide, the scale of potential fraud or error is staggering. If 1.6% of voters in Bihar were dead, what’s the national figure? If 2.2% had vanished without trace, how many more are out there?

The ECI’s use of technology — uploading 6.5 crore enumeration forms to the ECINet portal, allowing WhatsApp submissions, and deploying 1.5 lakh party-appointed Booth Level Agents — marks a shift toward digital democracy. But the human cost remains. In districts like Kishanganj, where families reported names of elderly relatives being removed despite living there for decades, trust in the system is fraying.

What Happens Next?

The final list will be used for the Bihar Assembly elections, expected between October and November 2025. But here’s the catch: voters can still apply for inclusion up to 10 days before nomination day — their names will appear only in a supplementary list, not the main roll. That means if you’re newly registered, you can vote — but your vote won’t count toward the official turnout percentage. It’s a workaround, not a fix.

Meanwhile, the ECI has promised a nationwide review of electoral rolls by 2026. Bihar is the pilot. If the model works here, it will be replicated in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and beyond. The stakes? Not just fair elections — but whether democracy in India’s most populous states remains accessible to the poorest, the most mobile, and the most vulnerable.