Patna, Oct 14 (IANS) While political parties in Bihar remain busy finalising seat-sharing arrangements and distributing election symbols, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that no appeals have been filed regarding the inclusion or deletion of names in the electoral rolls across the state.

In an official statement issued by the Commission, the ECI said, “No appeal has been received before the District Magistrate under Section 24(a) of the Representation of the People Act till October 14, 2025, regarding addition and deletion of names in the electoral roll by the Electoral Registration Officer in all the 243 Assembly Constituencies during the Special Intensive Revision Drive, 2025, in the State of Bihar.”

The announcement comes amid criticism from several opposition leaders — including Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav, Dipankar Bhattacharya, Mukesh Sahani, and others — who had raised objections over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls initiated by the Commission earlier this year.

The SIR campaign, launched on July 1, 2025, was aimed at ensuring accuracy in the voter rolls by including genuine voters while removing duplicate, deceased, permanently shifted, or ineligible entries.

The exercise was carried out in two phases and was completed by September 30.

The Enumeration Phase was conducted between July 1 and July 31, and the Draft Electoral Roll for all 243 Assembly constituencies was published on August 1.

The Final Electoral Roll was published on September 30, forming the basis for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.

According to the final voter list, 7.42 crore voters will be eligible to cast their votes in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.

In the draft list released earlier on August 1, there were 7.24 crore voters. During the revision process, 21.53 lakh new voters were added through Form 6 (the official inclusion form).

3.66 lakh names were removed after being found ineligible during scrutiny.

Earlier, in June 2025, Bihar had 7.89 crore registered voters.

Following the SIR exercise, a total of around 68 lakh names were deleted due to reasons such as death, migration, or duplication.

–IANS

ajk/dan