Bihar Assembly Election 2025: Bihar electoral contest usually sees campaigning on ground issues like poverty, caste, employment, development, and women among others. But this time, it was the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the voter roll that changed entire narrative. The opposition went guns blazing against the exercise conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The ruling regime, on the other hand, targeted the opposition for raising serious accusations against a constitutional body.
It led to a massive ‘voter adhikar rally’ by the RJD, Congress-led Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, with top leaders like Tejashwi Yadav, Rahul Gandhi accusing the ECI of “vote theft”. From development to “vote chori”, the SIR exercise turned the entire political game in the state around it.
And after three months, the deadline to publish the final roll post SIR is here. The ECI will make public the final draft roll on September 30. It is important to have the exercise completed as soon as possible because Bihar assembly elections are directly dependent on the SIR.
Bihar SIR: Final roll to be out on Sept 30
According to the schedule published by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the SIR exercise in Bihar has to be completed by September 30, so that dates can be announced on time to complete the process of entire assembly elections in Bihar by November 22, 2025.
The ECI is currently, through booth level officers (BLOs) and its entire machinery, is evaluating the objections received against deletion of their names and other possible discrepancies. The exercise began the very next day after the ECI announced the SIR plan (June 24).
The poll panel recently held a conference with the state election officers of all states to proceed for the nationwide SIR. An Indian Express report said the officials of the top poll body is planning to consult political parties also, something that did not happen during Bihar SIR.
SIR – Announcement, exercise all done: What happens after Sept 30?
Though the final rolls following an enormous process of complete revision, and evaluation of valid objections, will be published on September 30, the SIR won’t end here in Bihar. According to the ECI, people who find discrepancies with their names or any other details or still not satisfied with the removal of their names can approach their BLO, then the DM. The process will continue till the dates of elections are announced.
What is interesting to note here is the final roll will give a glimpse of the number game that Bihar will see this time. This means that the change in number of voters from the old list. This data is likely to create a ruckus as the opposition has called the SIR a ‘name deletion’ exercise meant for “vote theft” to benefit the ruling regime.
According to a report, the SIR will have names on 7.3 crore people, including 14 lakh new names. The January 2025 roll had 7.8 crore names on it, which will get reduced by 0.5 crore if the new list does have 7.3 crore voters’ names on it.
This difference might intensify the legal battle. The Supreme Court is already hearing a case against SIR based on a batch of petitions. The final arguments will be heard on October 7, and the apex court had said if it finds any illegality in the process, it would just scrap the entire Special Intensive Revision in Bihar.
Poll dates, voter roll analysis and elections
Once the voter roll is out, the EC will head for the announcement of the poll schedule for Bihar, which is likely to be held in 2-3 phases. The festive season will also be under the ECI’s consideration as it would avoid any step that limits the celebrations.
Hence, the elections could be completed before Chhath Puja, and decisions could be announced soon after the festival in the first week of November. But these are only expectations, and the EC only knows how the election process will proceed. Meanwhile, the parties would analyse the SIR roll, and district wise assessment is a big possibility with opposition parties attempting to find some ground to challenge the entire strategy and idea behind the SIR in Bihar this time.
Even the top court seems to be of the view to expedite the matter to ensure that it does not impact the democratic process of elections. The final of the SC would pave the way for the ECI to conduct polls, as instructed by the court as far as SIR is concerned.
By any means, the state of Bihar should have a government in action on November 22, and keeping this in mind, the ECI is actively working to fasten not just SIR, but preparations in Bihar. A team of the top poll panel will reportedly visit the state early next week to assess poll preparedness in the state.