October 7, 2025

The heat is on as Bihar readies for its Assembly elections! The Congress party has fired a sharp salvo at the Election Commission of India (ECI) over its much-touted Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. This SIR exercise, meant to weed out non-citizens from Bihar’s voter list, now faces tough questions about its success—or the lack of it. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, in a spicy post on X (formerly Twitter) on October 7, 2025, shared a deep dive from a newspaper analyzing the SIR exercise. His verdict? The entire process “bulldozed through” by the ECI has failed miserably on all three fronts – completeness, fairness, and accuracy. "Much was made of the need of the SIR exercise to remove non-citizens from the electoral roll," said Mr. Ramesh. But here’s the catch: "The EC has not had the integrity or the courage to enlighten the country on how many such non-citizens in Bihar were removed from the electoral roll." He added a stinging comment, "If it had done so, it would have been even more exposed than it already is." The opposition accuses the poll watchdog of acting under pressure from the ruling BJP. However, the Election Commission strongly denies these claims, promising it will neither leave out eligible voters nor allow ineligible ones into the list. The stakes are sky-high. Bihar will vote in two thrilling phases on November 6 and 11. Results will come on November 14, deciding if Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s NDA government stays or if the opposition alliance led by RJD and Congress will take charge. This swirling political drama around the voter list controversy adds extra masala to Bihar’s upcoming Assembly elections. Will the Election Commission clear the air? Can the opposition strike a winning chord? Only time and votes will tell!

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Tags: Bihar assembly elections, Special intensive revision, Election commission of india, Non-citizens, Jairam ramesh, Voter list controversy,