Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of favouring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after alleged irregularities emerged in Bihar’s final electoral roll released following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
Sharing a report on X, Ramesh claimed that as many as 247 voters were registered under a single household, while one individual’s name appeared three times in the same booth. He questioned the Election Commission’s impartiality, calling it the “BJP’s B-team.”
Ramesh alleged that the entire revision process was “orchestrated at the behest of the BJP” to give the ruling party a political advantage, and that it violated Supreme Court directives. He demanded an explanation from Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, asking how such large-scale discrepancies could appear in the final roll.
He further pointed out that nearly 47 lakh voter names had been deleted compared to the list before the SIR, a number that he said “exceeds the winning margins” from previous elections in several constituencies. According to him, the Election Commission should represent the entire nation, not appear as “a puppet of the ruling party,” as its “biased policies” were undermining democracy and India’s global image.
The Election Commission, however, defended its revision process in a press note issued on Friday. It stated that Bihar’s total electorate now stands at 7.42 crore, down from 7.89 crore in June. During the SIR, the Commission said 65 lakh names were deleted, 3.66 lakh ineligible voters were removed, and 21.53 lakh new voters were added.
The Commission has not yet issued an official response to Ramesh’s allegations.
