In November of this year, Bihar is scheduled to hold its assembly elections. The contest is anticipated to be a major one between the incumbent National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) alliance.

This election takes place amid a broader controversy surrounding a process called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, which has been the subject of a legal and political dispute.

What is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?

The Election Commission of India (ECI) describes the SIR as a drive to clean up and update the electoral roll. The goal is to add new voters and remove the names of those who have moved, passed away, or are registered in more than one location. The ECI has stated that the exercise was necessary and impartial, as it was the first extensive voter list update in the state since 2003.

Key Statistics and Allegations:

• Voter Deletion: The SIR exercise in Bihar resulted in a reduction of the total number of registered voters from approximately 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore. This amounts to a deletion of about 65 lakh names from the draft electoral roll published on August 1, 2025.

  
  

• Court Intervention: The Supreme Court of India intervened in the matter. On August 14, 2025, the court directed the ECI to publish a list of the 65 lakh deleted voters, including the reason for each deletion (such as death, permanent migration, or duplicate registration). The court also ordered the ECI to accept Aadhaar cards as a valid form of identification for voters seeking re-inclusion.

  
  

• Allegations of Disenfranchisement: Critics, including opposition parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), have alleged that the process disproportionately affects poor and minority voters, who may have difficulty with documentation. The ECI has countered that it has a wide range of powers to conduct such revisions and that it is following the law.

  
  

The Mahadevapura Controversy

The Bihar SIR controversy has been linked by the opposition to a wider set of allegations regarding the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, particularly in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka.

• Rahul Gandhi's Claims: Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, held a press conference where he alleged "vote theft" in the Mahadevapura constituency. He claimed his team found over 1 lakh "stolen votes" through methods such as duplicate voter entries, invalid addresses, bulk registrations at a single address, and IDs with improper photos. He pointed out that while the I.N.D.I.A. alliance won six of the seven assembly segments within the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, the alliance lost the Lok Sabha election by a margin of 32,707 votes, largely due to a loss of over 1.14 lakh votes in Mahadevapura.

  
  

• The ECI's Response: The ECI and the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka have responded to these allegations by issuing a notice to Rahul Gandhi, asking him to provide a formal complaint and evidence under oath to substantiate his claims. The ECI has denied the allegations, calling them unsubstantiated and misleading. The ECI stated that an initial inquiry found no evidence of double voting in a specific case cited by Gandhi. The ECI has also noted that its policies against sharing machine-readable electoral rolls are in place to safeguard voter privacy and comply with legal precedents.

  
  

• The 'Hard Copy' Issue: Rahul Gandhi and his team stated that it took them six months to analyze the voter data because the ECI provided the lists as "7 foot stack of paper," rather than in a machine-readable, electronic format. The ECI has not commented on this specific claim, but has maintained that its procedures are designed to protect voter privacy.

  
  

• The CCTV Footage: During his press conference, Rahul Gandhi presented his claims of vote theft, which he said was uncovered in the Mahadevapura constituency. When asked why the Election Commission (EC) had not released the CCTV footage from polling booths to address such concerns, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar responded by stating that doing so would compromise voter privacy. He rhetorically questioned whether the EC should share personal videos of voters, including "mothers and sisters" and their families, without consent. This response, which framed the issue in terms of protecting the privacy and dignity of voters, became a point of contention and was widely reported on in the media.
  

The upcoming Bihar elections will serve as a key test for how these allegations and controversies have resonated with the Indian electorate.