New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Tuesday said that over 52 lakh electors in Bihar were found to be either deceased, permanently shifted, or enrolled at multiple locations, citing preliminary findings from the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
According to a press note issued on Tuesday, the ECI said the preliminary revision exercise found 18.66 lakh deceased voters, 26.01 lakh who had shifted constituencies permanently, and 7.5 lakh with duplicate entries.
An additional 11,484 electors were marked as untraceable, altogether accounting for about 6.62 per cent of Bihar’s electorate.
As of June 24, Bihar had a total of 7.89 crore registered voters. The Commission reported that 90.67 per cent (7.16 crore) of electors had submitted Enumeration Forms (EFs), while 90.37 per cent (7.13 crore) of these forms had been digitised.
To carry out the massive verification drive, the ECI deployed nearly 1 lakh booth-level officers (BLOs), 4 lakh volunteers, and 1.5 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs) nominated by 12 major political parties. These teams were tasked with reaching voters who had not submitted EFs or were missing during field verification.
So far, 7.68 crore electors, or approximately 97.30 per cent of Bihar’s voter base have been covered through either form submission or on-ground verification. The remaining 2.70 per cent roughly 21.35 lakh voters are yet to be accounted for, with their EFs still pending.
The Commission has shared details of the 52.30 lakh deleted names with all recognised political parties in the state to maintain transparency in the process.
Looking ahead, the EC will release the Draft Electoral Rolls on August 1. A one-month window, from August 1 to September 1 will be provided for the public to raise objections regarding any additions, deletions, or corrections.
The SIR is part of the Election Commission’s broader efforts to clean up voter rolls and ensure a more accurate and credible electoral process in Bihar ahead of upcoming polls.
