Congress alleges anomalies, seeks fresh SIR in Bihar

PATNA: Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday demanded that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar be conducted afresh, alleging large-scale irregularities in the process. He claimed that his party had submitted 89 lakh complaints of irregularities, but the Election Commission (EC) denied receiving any, a response that left them "hugely startled."

Addressing a press conference in Patna, the Congress media and publicity department chairman said throughout the exercise the EC insisted it had not received any objections, despite the party's booth-level agents (BLAs) continuing to file them. "The EC kept saying through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress itself submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the SIR to the EC," Khera said. He added that EC officials had not entertained the complaints of their BLAs and demanded that the commission conduct door-to-door verification to correct the errors.


The EC, however, strongly denied the charge. In a statement, it said: "To date, no Booth Level Agent (BLA) authorised by any district president of the Indian National Congress in Bihar has submitted any claim (Form 6) or objection (Form 7) on any name in the draft electoral rolls published on Aug 1, 2025 in the prescribed format so far."

According to the EC, the Congress district committee presidents had submitted 89 lakh letters to district election officials in the past two days seeking removal of names from the voter list in Bihar, but "they were not in prescribed formats."