No clarity on why 3.66 lakh additional voters were deleted: CPI(ML) Liberation’s Dipankar Bhattacharya

“The Election Commission (EC) should specify the grounds for deleting 3.66 lakh additional voters,” CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, saying lack of clarity in the final electoral roll published on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) for Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls in the State is a matter of concern.

Mr. Bhattacharya flagged four key problems with the final electoral roll. “First and foremost we still don’t know how many of those who were wrongfully deleted from the draft roll have been restored in the final roll. The disproportionate deletion of women from the voter rolls is also worrying,” he said.

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“There were 914 women per 1,000 male voters on the electoral roll before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). It has now come down to 892.” Mr. Bhattacharya said, “There are several constituencies where the number of voters in the final list is lower than that of the draft roll published on August 1.”

The final electoral roll released on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) has 7.42 crore names. Prior to the special intensive revision, the State had 7.89 crore voters as on June 24, 2025. When the draft list was released on August 1, 2025, there were 7.24 crore names with 65 lakh removed. On the final list, 21.53 lakh names were added and 3.66 lakh removed.

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“The EC directed those who have been wrongfully deleted to use Form 6 to enroll themselves afresh in voter rolls. This form was usually used for first time voters. EC should provide clarity on how many of those added using Form 6 are first time voters,” he said. 

Mr. Bhattacharya also flagged reports, which revealed that at least 6,000 cases of deletions are due to the people being found “non citizens of India.” No such figure had emerged after the draft roll was published. “This is a significant number. The EC must give us clear answers on how they arrived at this figure,” he added. 

He said, “If the answers aren’t forthcoming, the Opposition will have to approach the Supreme Court once again.