New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday sharply criticised the Election Commission (EC), accusing it of lacking the “courage and integrity” to disclose how many non-citizens were removed from Bihar’s voter list during the recently concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Ramesh questioned the transparency of the EC, suggesting that the Commission deliberately avoided releasing details on the number of foreigners struck off the electoral rolls. “Much was made of the need for the SIR to remove non-citizens from the voter list. But the EC has neither had the integrity nor the courage to inform the country how many such individuals were actually removed. If it had, the Commission would have been even more exposed than it already is,” he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The Congress General Secretary in charge of Communications also shared an article by political analyst Yogendra Yadav, which strongly criticised the BiharSIR. Ramesh endorsed the piece, saying it showed how the EC-led exercise had failed in terms of “completeness, equity, and accuracy.”
His comments come as the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear petitions related to the Bihar SIR. In an earlier hearing on September 8, the apex court directed the EC to allow Aadhaar to be used as a valid proof of identity—making it the 12th acceptable document for inclusion in the revised voter list.
The EC recently published the final electoral roll for Bihar following the completion of the SIR, which it said was the first such revision in 22 years. According to the Commission, the total number of electors now stands at 7.42 crore, down from 7.89 crore as of June 24, 2025. About 65 lakh names were removed from the draft roll, while the number of voters listed as of August 1 stood at 7.24 crore.
Despite the controversy, the EC has announced plans to implement similar voter list revisions nationwide.
Meanwhile, Bihar is gearing up for its Assembly elections, which will be held in two phases—on November 6 and 11. Counting of votes is scheduled for November 14.
In the last Assembly election in 2015, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the single-largest party with 80 seats and an 18.8% vote share. Its allies, the Congress and JD(U), secured 27 and 71 seats respectively, with vote shares of 6.8% and 17.3%. The BJP won 53 seats with a 25% vote share, while other parties collectively gained 8 seats and 22.5% of the votes.
