Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, asserted that eligible citizens should register themselves as voters only in constituencies of which they are ordinary residents and not the place where they own a house. Photo credit: PIB
With the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in Bihar, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday (July 1, 2025) said that a person is entitled to vote only in the Assembly constituency where he or she is ordinarily a resident and not in one where they own a house.
Government officials have begun distributing enumeration forms to all registered voters in Bihar from Saturday. The SIR exercise began on June 25 with the printing of the forms and is scheduled to end on September 30 with the publication of the updated voter rolls.
Multiple voter cards
Addressing a group of booth-level officers here, the CEC said one of the key objectives of the drive is to identify “many persons” who have, knowingly or unknowingly, managed to retain multiple voter cards of different constituencies.
“As per the Representation of the People Act, you are entitled to vote only in the Assembly constituency where you are ordinarily a resident. For example, if you ordinarily reside in Delhi but own a house in Patna, your vote should be registered in Delhi, not in Patna,” he added.
Senior Election Commission (EC) officials pointed out that many persons are generally residents of one place and have got their voter card from that location while retaining their earlier card before migrating from there, which is a criminal offence.
Opposition criticism
Opposition parties, though, have claimed that the SIR exercise could disenfranchise many genuine voters of their right.
Bihar has a total of 7,89,69,844 electors out of which the names of 4.96 crore are already present in the last electoral rolls when the last SIR exercise was carried out in 2003. These electors have to verify by filling the enumeration forms and submitting them.
The EC has said the revision exercise would be later expanded to other States. The move assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various States on illegal foreign migrants, including from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Published – July 01, 2025 05:37 pm IST