Tejashwi Yadav Raises 3 Key Objections to ECI’s Citizenship Verification Drive in Bihar

Tejashwi Yadav raises 3 key objections to the Election Commission’s move asking Bihar voters to prove citizenship, citing concerns over identity, voter rights, and regional dignity.

A Controversy Brews in Bihar

A new political faultline is emerging in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, as Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Leader of the Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI). At the center of this growing controversy is the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of electoral rolls—a move that Yadav and the INDIA bloc have condemned as discriminatory, unconstitutional, and an insult to the “Bihari identity”.

Calling it a “citizenship test” singularly targeted at Bihar, Yadav has escalated the issue into what analysts now consider a major political flashpoint with far-reaching consequences not just for the state, but also for the national discourse around elections, migration, and democratic rights.

🔹 What is the SIR, and Why is Bihar Targeted?

On the surface, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) announced by the ECI is meant to cleanse the electoral rolls of ineligible voters, including “illegal immigrants” and “non-permanent residents”. According to ECI’s official statement, the revision process is aimed at streamlining Bihar’s electoral database before the 2025 assembly elections.

However, the directives issued under this exercise go far beyond routine voter list updates.

The ECI has now mandated that voters must present a series of documents—including birth certificates of both the applicant and their parents, school-leaving certificates, land records, or legal property documents—to prove their identity and establish eligibility.

More controversially, documents like Aadhar cards, EPIC (voter ID), and ration cards—long considered acceptable for identification—will not suffice alone.

This has triggered outrage among opposition parties and civil society groups alike, who argue that the requirements are illogical, exclusionary, and anti-poor—especially in a state with high illiteracy, systemic documentation issues, and extensive migration.

🔹 Tejashwi Yadav’s Charge: “This is Not a Revision, It’s a Rejection of Biharis”

On Friday, July 4, 2025, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav took the battle to a new pitch.

Flanked by senior INDIA bloc allies, he declared the ECI’s move “an insult to every Bihari, regardless of religion or caste”, accusing the commission of targeting only Bihar for a discriminatory citizenship verification that he likened to “a backdoor NRC”.

“In the whole country, only Biharis—each and every Bihari—have been forced to prove their citizenship? Why should only Bihar have to go through this humiliation?” Yadav thundered at a press conference in Patna.

Refusing to mince words, he continued:

“It doesn’t matter if you are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, forward, backward, Dalit, or EBC. Every Bihari has been targeted. If this is not discrimination, what is?”

Yadav also questioned the very legitimacy of previous elections in the state, asking:

“If today’s electoral rolls are being doubted, does it mean elections held in 2020, 2015, or earlier were all fraudulent? Is the ECI suggesting that every CM, MLA, or MP elected from Bihar was illegitimate?”

🔹 INDIA Bloc’s Allegations: SIR = Voter Suppression?

The INDIA bloc, a broad anti-BJP coalition comprising the RJD, Congress, CPI(ML), CPI, CPI(M), and other smaller outfits, has echoed Tejashwi’s concerns.

On Wednesday, July 3, a 20-member INDIA bloc delegation met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other election officials in New Delhi, where they raised objections about the timing, scope, and intent of the SIR.

According to the delegation, the SIR was being conducted in a “hurried, opaque, and unfriendly manner”, with the ECI refusing to consider logistical, legal, and humanitarian concerns.

Post-meeting, senior Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan said:

“The Commission was outright hostile. They refused to give a reasonable timeline or relax documentation norms. We are staring at the possibility of nearly 1 crore voters being disenfranchised.”

The Left parties pointed out that the SIR disproportionately affects the poor, Dalits, Muslims, and migrants—many of whom have neither land nor educational certificates due to historical oppression.

🔹 Document Crisis: The Poor and Migrants May Lose Voice

Bihar has long suffered from poor documentation, lack of digitization, and bureaucratic corruption. The average voter, particularly in rural and marginalized communities, is unlikely to possess:

Birth certificates (especially of both parents)
Matriculation or school-leaving documents
Legal land ownership papers
Digitally verifiable property proof

Activists fear that the ECI’s new rules could trigger mass deletion of genuine voters, especially among:

4.5 crore internal migrants—many of whom work in Delhi, Mumbai, or Gujarat and are seasonal voters in Bihar.
Landless Dalits and Adivasis with no documentation.
Women, especially widows or single mothers, lacking birth/marriage records.
Religious minorities, often underdocumented or displaced.

Civil rights organizations have already termed the SIR “a legalised voter purge”.

🔹 Allegations of Corruption and Conspiracy

Yadav warned that the document collection rush will inevitably fuel corruption, as people without paperwork may be forced to bribe panchayat or block-level officials for forged certificates.

“People will now spend money to get fake certificates made. You are creating a market of bribery. This is not reform, it’s a conspiracy,” he said.

Yadav also cast doubt on the true motive behind the SIR:

“This is not a routine exercise. This is an attempt to change the demography of the voter base, eliminate certain communities from the list, and rig the elections.”

🔹 NDA’s Calculated Silence: A Tactical Gamble?

Interestingly, most NDA parties—including BJP, JD(U), LJP (Ram Vilas), and HAM—have so far remained tight-lipped on the explosive issue.

While Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) have avoided public statements, the Rashtriya Lok Morcha’s Upendra Kushwaha broke ranks.

Kushwaha, an NDA ally, warned:

“The ECI must ensure that no genuine voter is left out. Documentation must not become a reason for exclusion.”

Analysts believe this NDA silence is tactical—intended to avoid backlash from either the Hindu upper caste voters who may see the SIR as necessary, or the backward communities and poor migrants who may suffer from the rules.

🔹 What Happens Next?

With the assembly elections just months away, the controversy is expected to intensify:

The opposition INDIA bloc is likely to launch state-wide protests, public awareness campaigns, and even legal challenges against the SIR.
The ECI may face contempt petitions or PILs in the Patna High Court or Supreme Court if it proceeds without review.
Civil society may step in to support disenfranchised groups with legal aid and documentation drives.
The NDA may be forced to clarify its stand or risk alienating sections of its own voter base.

🔹A Battle for Identity, Democracy, and 2025

What began as a bureaucratic procedure has now snowballed into a major constitutional debate—one that touches upon issues of identity, migration, federalism, and democratic rights.

Tejashwi Yadav’s framing of the issue as an “affront to Bihari pride” has struck a chord. In a state where regional identity runs deep, and where political battles are often fought on emotive grounds, this could well be a turning point.

The Special Intensive Revision has now become much more than a technical process—it’s a referendum on the idea of Bihar itself.

From State Capital to the Last Panchayat — How SIR is Unfolding on the Ground

As the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls surges ahead under the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) mandate, confusion and panic are setting in across the length and breadth of Bihar. From the dusty villages of Araria and the dense urban slums of Patna to the migrant-sending districts of Gaya, Siwan, and Madhubani, millions of voters now fear losing their most basic democratic right: the right to vote.

In this second part of our in-depth investigation, Liberty Wire travels to the heart of Bihar to uncover how the SIR is being implemented, what documents are being demanded, and how citizens — especially the poor and marginalized — are reacting to this unprecedented documentation exercise. We also examine the Election Commission’s rationale, the INDIA bloc’s mobilisation strategy, and the long-term implications for the integrity of elections in Bihar and India at large.

🔹 “We Have Voted for Years, But Now We Are Outsiders?”

In the village of Narpatganj, close to the Nepal border in Araria district, 68-year-old Janki Devi clutches her faded ration card and voter ID. She has voted in every state and Lok Sabha election since 1980. But last week, her name was marked “under review” by a local booth-level officer during the SIR drive.

“They told me I need my father’s birth certificate or our land record. We have none. My parents died decades ago,” she says, tears brimming in her eyes. “Have I not proved I am Indian enough after 40 years of voting?”

Across Bihar, stories like Janki Devi’s are becoming common. In Gaya, a group of Dalit women led by social worker Sushila Kumari staged a sit-in outside the block office when a dozen elderly widows were reportedly told they need to submit either property proof or their children’s birth certificates to remain on the electoral roll.

In Madhubani, where out-migration is rampant, villagers claim that names of youth working in Delhi and Punjab have already started disappearing from the draft rolls circulated for review.

“Migrant workers don’t have the time or means to come back just to fill forms and hunt for certificates. This is systemic disenfranchisement,” says Rajiv Mishra, a retired schoolteacher helping locals navigate the paperwork.

🔹 What the ECI Says: “We’re Targeting Illegals, Not Citizens”

In its July 1 press release, the Election Commission clarified that the SIR is a “targeted exercise to weed out ineligible, duplicate, or illegally listed voters”, particularly in border states like Bihar where concerns over illegal immigration and population manipulation have been raised.

The ECI emphasized that:

Aadhar and EPIC cards alone will not be accepted due to past cases of misuse or duplicate registrations.
At least two government documents will be required — one to prove identity and another to establish ancestral roots or permanent residency.
Those without birth certificates can submit school records, land pattas, panchayat-issued certificates, or affidavits, but these must be attested and verifiable.

However, the practical application of these guidelines has proven chaotic, inconsistent, and exclusionary, especially in Bihar’s rural and marginalized communities.

🔹 Documentation Crisis: Who Gets Left Out?

Caste- and class-based inequalities in document ownership are now manifesting in real-time. A field survey conducted by Liberty Wire across five districts reveals the following alarming trends:

📌 1. Dalits and Adivasis

73% lack any land records.
61% have no birth certificates for parents or self.
82% have only ration cards and voter ID — not considered sufficient.

📌 2. Muslim Communities

48% possess incomplete or non-digitized documentation.
Women in particular lack school certificates, as many dropped out early.

📌 3. Migrant Families

Children born out of state have non-Bihar documents (e.g., birth certificates issued in Mumbai, Surat, or Delhi).
67% face mismatches in address, parental names, or spelling errors in documents — leading to disqualification.

📌 4. Women and Widows

Vast majority lack property ownership or formal land documents.
Matric certificates missing in most 45+ rural women.
Dependency on husband’s ID (if deceased or untraceable) leads to exclusion.

🔹 Inside the Booth Level Officers’ (BLOs) Struggle

BLOs and panchayat workers tasked with verifying millions of voters are themselves confused.

A BLO in Samastipur admitted:

“We have no training on what to do if someone has only ration card and voter ID. Some officers tell us to accept, others say no. Instructions change every day.”

Another official in Katihar confessed that “pressure from senior district election officers is huge”, and that BLOs are being asked to submit ‘target deletions’—a quota of names to be removed.

“This is becoming like a census purge. And the worst-hit are poor, illiterate people who don’t even know what documents are being asked,” he said.

🔹 A Political Firestorm Escalates

The opposition INDIA bloc is capitalising on the chaos to galvanise public sentiment. Posters in Patna and Muzaffarpur now carry slogans like:

“Naagrikta ki jaach? Bihar se dushmani band karo!” (Citizenship test? Stop targeting Bihar!)
“Matdaan ka haq chheen ne wale, tanashah hain!” (Those who steal our voting right are tyrants!)

Tejashwi Yadav has announced a “Save Democracy Yatra” across 25 districts, while Congress has declared it will hold simultaneous protests outside ECI offices in 10 cities next week.

The CPI(ML) has already filed a writ petition in the Patna High Court, alleging that the ECI’s guidelines violate Article 326 of the Constitution (universal adult suffrage) and Article 14 (right to equality).

Meanwhile, civil rights groups like PUCL and HRLN are preparing class-action PILs in the Supreme Court, citing “mass voter exclusion without due process.”

🔹 NDA on the Defensive: A Delicate Balancing Act

The ruling NDA remains largely silent. However, internal sources within JD(U) and LJP suggest nervousness about the potential fallout:

Backward caste voters, the traditional JD(U) stronghold, are among the most vulnerable to exclusion.
Paswan voters, central to LJP’s base, are also affected by documentation deficits.
BJP’s focus on citizenship verification—a legacy of NRC and CAA rhetoric—may backfire in Bihar where even many upper castes lack land papers or birth certificates.

Only Upendra Kushwaha of Rashtriya Lok Morcha (an NDA ally) has broken ranks to raise red flags, stating:

“The Election Commission must tread carefully. Sincere voters should not suffer due to bureaucratic overreach.”

🔹 Long-Term Impact: Erosion of Trust in Democratic Institutions?

At stake is more than the 2025 Bihar assembly election. Analysts say that the SIR experiment could become a national template, especially in states with large migrant or Muslim populations.

If implemented without safeguards, this could fundamentally alter India’s electoral character by:

Shrinking the voter base by millions in the name of “cleansing”.
Creating legal hurdles to voting that disproportionately affect the poor.
Delegitimizing past elections by implying previous rolls were faulty.
Turning the ECI into a gatekeeper of citizenship—a role it has not been constitutionally assigned.

🔹 Democracy on Trial in Bihar

The SIR controversy has become a litmus test for India’s electoral integrity.

For Tejashwi Yadav, it’s a matter of identity: “You cannot ask Biharis to prove they are Indians. They are India.”

For the Election Commission, it’s a question of legal authority and voter list credibility.

For the common Bihari, it’s a fight to remain seen, counted, and heard in the world’s largest democracy.

The Legal Showdown Has Begun

With every passing day, Bihar’s electoral battlefield is shifting from streets and panchayats to courtrooms and constitutional chambers. As millions across the state grapple with the threat of disenfranchisement due to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR), political parties, human rights activists, legal experts, and constitutional scholars are preparing for what could become the most critical judicial test of voter rights since India’s independence.

ongoing series explores the judicial dimensions of the SIR crisis, drawing comparisons with the NRC-CAA debates, identifying potential violations of constitutional guarantees, and presenting exclusive legal opinions that highlight the growing risk of turning voter registration into a de facto citizenship verification regime.

🔹 Article 326: Universal Adult Suffrage vs Bureaucratic Filters

At the heart of the legal debate is Article 326 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees universal adult franchise for every Indian citizen above 18 years of age.

The provision is unambiguous:

“The elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assemblies… shall be on the basis of adult suffrage.”

Legal scholar Prof. Faizan Mustafa of NALSAR Hyderabad explains:

“The Constitution nowhere states that a voter must present a battery of documents to prove citizenship. That job lies with the Home Ministry—not the ECI. The SIR oversteps that boundary.”

In essence, the ECI’s current framework—where birth certificates of both parents, land deeds, or school records are demanded—may violate Article 326 by creating artificial barriers to suffrage.

🔹 PIL Filed: First Legal Challenge Reaches Patna High Court

On July 4, a PIL was filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Loktantrik Adhikar Manch, seeking immediate suspension of the SIR until:

A transparent, uniform, and legally vetted framework is released;
No citizen is removed based on lack of documents without adequate representation or appeal mechanism;
The Election Commission clarifies whether SIR is a citizenship verification tool or a routine roll update.

The PIL argues:

“The ECI is bypassing due process and usurping functions that constitutionally fall within the domain of the Ministry of Home Affairs or the judiciary.”

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, speaking to Liberty Wire, called the SIR “dangerously close to a mini NRC in the guise of voter verification”.

🔹 Supreme Court Watch: Will It Intervene?

Sources close to constitutional bench advocates confirm that a consortium of civil liberties groups is preparing a petition for urgent intervention by the Supreme Court of India, citing:

Violation of Article 14 (Right to Equality): As Bihar is being singled out for this citizenship scrutiny.
Violation of Article 21 (Right to Life with Dignity): As denial of voting rights affects a citizen’s dignity and participation in governance.
Violation of federal principles: As such sweeping changes affecting a state’s electorate must come with state government consultation and legislative safeguards.

Liberty Wire has learned that multiple former judges, including Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Madan Lokur, have expressed informal support for a judicial review of the ECI’s mandate.

🔹 Historical Parallel: Is This NRC 2.0?

To many political observers and legal experts, the SIR bears a chilling resemblance to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam, which left over 19 lakh people—many genuine citizens—excluded due to documentation issues.

In Assam:

People had to prove ancestry going back to 1971.
Voter ID, Aadhar, and PAN cards were not accepted as citizenship proof.
Women and poor rural citizens were disproportionately affected.

The fallout was devastating:

Families torn apart.
Years of detention center threats.
Thousands fighting legal battles for basic recognition.

Prof. Alok Prasanna Kumar, Senior Fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, warns:

“Bihar is being used as a testbed for NRC-style exercises disguised under the ECI. The legal justification is wafer-thin, and the constitutional implications are profound.”

🔹 ECI’s Defense: “Cleaning Electoral Rolls is Our Duty”

In response to growing criticism, the Election Commission has doubled down, stating that the Representation of the People Act, 1950, gives it authority to ensure:

Only genuine citizens vote;
Electoral rolls are updated before major elections;
Bogus entries, migrants, and illegals are removed to protect electoral sanctity.

However, former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi disagrees with the current ECI’s approach:

“The law allows corrections, but not arbitrary citizenship tests. If someone has a valid voter ID, that’s presumed citizenship unless proven otherwise in court.”

🔹 Legal Gray Zone: Who Decides Who’s Indian?

The law in India currently provides no fixed protocol for mass citizenship determination outside NRC. Citizenship law is governed by:

The Citizenship Act, 1955
The Foreigners Act, 1946
Supreme Court precedent (e.g., Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India, 2005)

The ECI, as a statutory body, cannot declare someone a non-citizen. Only a Foreigner Tribunal or designated judicial authority has such powers.

Therefore, if SIR leads to names being struck from the electoral rolls based on lack of parental certificates or land papers, the ECI may be acting ultra vires (beyond its legal authority).

🔹 Gender and Caste Discrimination: Legal Scholars Raise Alarm

Advocates and researchers at the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR), Bengaluru, have flagged the SIR process as inherently casteist and patriarchal.

Key arguments:

Dalits, EBCs, and Adivasis are more likely to be landless and illiterate — hence less likely to possess qualifying documents.
Women, particularly widows or deserted wives, often lack any documentation linking them to a “head of family” — a colonial-era classification still in use.
The process thereby excludes the vulnerable while privileging the document-rich elite — creating a legal apartheid in voter registration.

🔹 What Happens If People Are Excluded?

If names are struck off due to incomplete documentation, individuals face a long legal battle to reinstate themselves as voters. The steps include:

Filing Form 6 for fresh inclusion.
Attending hearings at the block or district level.
Submitting affidavits and appeals.
Possibly moving the High Court for writ relief.

In practice, this is unaffordable and inaccessible to most affected citizens.

🔹 Tejashwi’s Legal Team Plans Strategy

Liberty Wire has learned that RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has assembled a special legal advisory team comprising top Supreme Court lawyers and constitutional experts.

They are preparing:

A multi-pronged legal strategy that includes PILs, counter-affidavits, and contempt notices.
A public legal awareness campaign titled “Vote Hamara, Haq Hamara” to help citizens file objections.
Legal support clinics in every district to assist excluded citizens in submitting Form 6 or appeals.

🔹 A Constitutional Crisis in the Making?

As the legal battle unfolds, the very definition of citizenship, voterhood, and democratic access is under siege in Bihar.

From the judiciary’s perspective, the SIR will test:

The limits of ECI authority.
The interpretation of voting as a constitutional right.
The boundaries of bureaucratic power in a democracy.

The coming weeks will decide whether India remains a country where you are presumed a citizen unless proven otherwise, or one where you must perpetually prove yourself worthy to vote—with land deeds, lineage papers, or birth records.

The next hearing in Patna High Court is scheduled for July 11, while Supreme Court intervention could come as early as next week.

From Courtrooms to Streets, the SIR Turns into a Mass Movement

While lawyers and judges dissect the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in courts, a parallel battlefield is coming alive across Bihar. On dusty roads, outside district offices, in village meetings, and across university campuses, the SIR has transformed from a bureaucratic exercise into a full-blown political mass movement.

The INDIA bloc, led by Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress, and Left parties, has seized on the moment to rally voters against what they call a “planned disenfranchisement conspiracy”, while the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA)—dominated by BJP and its allies—has adopted a cautious, calibrated silence, fearing electoral blowback.

In this fourth installment of Liberty Wire’s long-form investigation, we track the evolving ground campaign dynamics, the narrative framing, and the emerging political implications of what may become one of the most consequential electoral mobilizations in Bihar’s history.

🔹 INDIA Bloc’s Mobilization: “SIR Nahi, Shaan Chahiye!”

At a massive rally held in Hajipur, Vaishali on July 5, Tejashwi Yadav electrified a crowd of over 40,000 with a thunderous slogan:

“Bihari ka samman, matdaan ka adhikaar!”
(Bihari pride is tied to the right to vote!)

With flags of the RJD, Congress, CPI(ML), and CPI fluttering together for the first time in months, the INDIA bloc launched its statewide grassroots campaign titled “Vote Bachao, Loktantra Bachao Yatra” (Save the Vote, Save Democracy March).

Key components of the campaign include:

Village-level chaupals and document awareness camps, especially in Dalit, Muslim, and OBC-dominated areas.
Door-to-door outreach by RJD’s student wing to explain SIR requirements and counter ECI’s instructions.
Legal aid booths with pre-filled Form-6 templates, affidavits, and guidance for documentation.
Public readings of the Preamble to the Constitution at rallies, followed by symbolic oaths to protect democracy.

Tejashwi, backed by slogans like “Hum Bihari hain, Hum Bharatiya hain”, is framing the SIR as a direct challenge to Bihari identity and a return to colonial-era profiling.

🔹 Women at the Forefront: “We Are the Forgotten Voters”

A notable feature of the protests is the overwhelming participation of women—especially rural widows, Anganwadi workers, midwives, and teachers.

In Bhagalpur, hundreds of women gathered at the collectorate with placards reading:

“Pati mar gaya, kagaz kahan se laayen?”
(My husband is dead. Where do I get papers from?)

Sunita Devi, 54, a widow with no property title or birth record, told Liberty Wire:

“I raised three children alone, voted in every election. Now they say I need to prove I am Indian? Shame on this system!”

Several women’s rights groups have joined the INDIA bloc in protests, calling the SIR “institutionalised patriarchy”.

🔹 Students, Migrants, and Youth Join the Resistance

In Patna University and Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, students have begun campus marches under the banner of “Matdaata Morcha” (Voter Front), demanding that Aadhaar and EPIC cards be restored as sufficient voter documents.

In Muzaffarpur, where large numbers of youth migrate seasonally, WhatsApp groups and Instagram pages titled “Kaagaz Nahi Dikhaayenge” are going viral, drawing inspiration from the anti-NRC-CAA protests of 2019–20.

One student activist, Ravi Kumar, said:

“You can’t demand birth certificates when you failed to provide hospitals. You can’t ask for land records when your own government gave us nothing.”

🔹 Cultural Mobilization: Poems, Songs, and Plays Against SIR

Artists and folk singers have entered the fray. In Gopalganj, poet Naseeruddin Malik performed a street poem:

“Na ham videshi, na hum ghuspaithi,
Bihar ki mitti se ugre hain hum.
Chunav ka haq mat chhino,
Patte-purje mat maango humse.”
(We’re no foreigners, no infiltrators,
We rose from Bihar’s soil.
Don’t take our vote away,
Don’t ask us for scraps of proof.)

Nautanki troupes are staging plays in village haats and melas to explain the dangers of SIR, portraying it as “Shaitan Ka Kaagazi Shastra” (The Devil’s Paper Weapon).

🔹 NDA’s Nervous Silence: Behind the Curtain

Despite mounting public pressure, the NDA—particularly BJP and JD(U)—has so far avoided direct confrontation or support for the SIR.

Why?

Vote Base Overlap:
BJP’s rising influence among EBCs, Mahadalits, and rural women could be hurt if these groups face exclusion.
Nitish Kumar’s Vulnerability:
JD(U)’s core support lies among castes most affected by the document crisis—Kurmis, Koeris, Paswans, and rural middle castes. Nitish has avoided all SIR-related comments, likely fearing backlash from both voters and the BJP top brass.
Sangh’s Internal Debate:
Sources say RSS functionaries in Bihar are split—some see SIR as necessary to prevent illegal voting; others fear it could damage Hindu unity by targeting poor Hindus too.

Only Upendra Kushwaha of Rashtriya Lok Morcha has raised concerns publicly, and even Jitan Ram Manjhi is reported to be lobbying internally to dilute SIR in Dalit-dominated areas.

🔹 Administrative Strain: District Officers Feel the Heat

District collectors and block officers are caught in a political whirlpool. In Begusarai, a BLO told Liberty Wire on condition of anonymity:

“We’re being asked to delete names if documents are ‘unclear’. But how do we define unclear? We are not judges. Yet if we don’t meet deletion targets, we’re threatened with suspension.”

ECI sources deny “deletion quotas,” but field officers report verbal instructions that “10–15% cleansing” is expected per booth, especially in border districts like Kishanganj and Araria.

A senior Patna district magistrate admitted:

“If this continues, the voter list will become a political bombshell. No bureaucrat wants to be in the crossfire.”

🔹 Rising Tensions: The Risk of Social Polarization

In several towns, clashes have already broken out between INDIA bloc workers and BJP youth members, especially where the former allege “partisan deletions”.

In Siwan, local BJP workers were accused of pressuring BLOs to target Muslim households. In Supaul, posters went up labeling certain Muslim hamlets as “under verification for nationality.”

Such incidents suggest the polarization risk is real—not just political, but communal.

Security agencies have flagged possible unrest if bulk deletions become public and mass protests turn violent.

🔹 The Slogans of 2025: What the People Are Chanting

Across Bihar, slogans around the SIR have begun to define the early tone of the 2025 elections:

🗣 “Kaagaz maangne waale, Bhaag jaao Bihar se!”
🗣 “Na NRC, na SIR, chahiye humein matdata ka adhikar!”
🗣 “Roti nahi di, makaan nahi diya, ab vote bhi chheenoge?”

Each chant reflects a growing sense of betrayal, not just by the ECI but also by the political elite who allowed such a process without public consultation.

🔹 What’s Next: Countdown to a Political Tipping Point

As the July 15 deadline for document submissions under SIR approaches, the pressure on all sides is intensifying:

The INDIA bloc is planning a march to Raj Bhavan in Patna on July 10.
Several MLAs and MPs may resign en masse if large-scale deletions occur.
Civil society leaders have called for a state-wide bandh (shutdown) if SIR is not paused.
ECI sources suggest a re-evaluation meeting may happen in Delhi on July 12.

Meanwhile, all eyes are on how the voter list revisions play out in Muslim-majority Seemanchal, migrant-heavy Bhojpur, and Dalit-dominated Gaya and Nawada.

🔹The Vote, The Voice, and the Veil of Bureaucracy

As SIR becomes the rallying cry for Bihar’s poor, backward, and marginalized, 2025 may no longer be about development or caste alliances alone. It is fast becoming a battle between two narratives:

One that sees voter verification as a matter of national security.
The other that sees it as voter suppression and identity erasure.

The INDIA bloc seems to have sensed an emotional chord—Bihari pride under siege. And in the land of Lohia, JP, and Ambedkarite legacy, nothing fuels rebellion like the feeling of being silenced.

Also Read : 5 Key Revelations by Lt Gen Rahul Singh on Operation Sindoor and India’s Security Priorities