As reported by The Telegraph, it was Giriraj Singh, the BJP’s MP from Begusarai, who told a poll rally in Arwal district on Saturday that “citizens who accept government welfare have a moral obligation to vote for the ruling party.” Twisting perversely the very fundamentals of republican democratic governance, he clearly appeared to use the term for Muslims who are beneficiaries of the schemes declared by the current regime at the Centre but do not support the BJP.

In a video of the speech, Singh recounted a reported conversation with a cleric. “So I told him that one who doesn’t acknowledge help is called a namak haram,” the minister is heard saying.

“I told him, ‘Maulvi Saheb, I don’t want the votes of the namak haram’,” he said.

Despite facing criticism on Sunday (October 19), Singh stood by his remarks, telling reporters he meant only to highlight that government welfare schemes were non-discriminatory.

The comments drew strong and immediate criticism.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut demanded the minister’s removal, asking, “If someone doesn’t vote for you, does that make them namak haram?” The Bihar Congress called Singh “mentally unstable.”

The BJP’s main ally in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United), was more cautious in its response. Spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan said voters “make decisions beyond such comments,” while another party leader defended Singh.

The minister’s provocative statement was the most high-profile of several communally charged incidents involving BJP leaders over the weekend. In Pune, on Sunday, Rajya Sabha MP Medha Kulkarni led a protest organised by the Patit Pavan Sanghatna and other Hindu outfits at the historic Shaniwarwada fort, reported The Indian Express.

After a video showed Muslim women offering prayers at the site, Kulkarni and activists “purified” the spot with cow urine and performed a Hindu ritual. “We will not allow ‘namaz’ in Shaniwarwada, Hindu community has now become awakened,” she tweeted before the protest. She later defended the action, stating, “It is a symbol of Hindavi Swaraj… We cannot allow anyone to offer namaz here. It is not a mosque.”

The move was slammed by political opponents as an attempt to polarise voters ahead of local civic polls. Sachin Sawant of the Maharashtra Congress noted the fort’s diverse history, adding, “The BJP MP is also protesting against the ‘dargah’ outside Shaniwarwada. When the Peshwas had no problem, what is her problem?”

Separately, a video showed BJP leader Pragya Thakur urging parents to use violence to control their daughters, reported The Financial Express. She warned that girls welcomed as “Lakshmi or Saraswati” grow up to become “mianin” (a derogatory term for a Muslim man’s wife).

“Strengthen your mind, and make it so strong that if our daughter does not obey us, if she goes to a non-believer’s house, leave no stone unturned in considering breaking her legs,” Thakur said.

She added that parents should not “step back” from beating their children for their own good! These incidents come as Bihar prepares for elections, with the first phase of polling on November 6, the second on November 11, and counting on November 14.

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The post Bihar Elections Build-up: ‘Won’t allow namaz’, ‘namak haram’, BJP MPs’ communal hate-filled remarks draw fire appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In Bihar’s finalised voter database of 243 assembly constituencies, we found more than 14.35 lakh suspect duplicate voters. These are voters with two different voter IDs but the same names, the same name of a relative, and an age difference of 0-5 years. Of these 14.35 lakh, about 3.42 lakh duplicates were the most alarming, where the ages on both voter IDs matched perfectly as well. Additionally, there were tens of thousands of cases where people across Bihar hold at least three EPIC IDs.

Our analysis also reveals that around 1.32 crore voters have also been registered in the final voter list of the 243 constituencies on dubious and non-existent addresses. These are not the notional addresses that the ECI is required to provide to families of voters who are either homeless or living in homes without a registered address. In these cases, random voters from different families, castes, and communities have been wrongfully clubbed together under fictional addresses.

In one of the most egregious of such cases, we found that 505 people from different families, castes and communities continue to be registered on a fake address in Pipra constituency’s final voter list.

This could not have happened if the ECI and its army of ground staff had actually carried out the door-to-door verification of voters and their records, as it claims to have done.

The investigation rebuts Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s puffery after releasing the final voter list. On October 5, he said, “With the successful completion of SIR, the voters’ list in Bihar has been purified. It is after a gap of 22 years that such a cleansing has taken place. The exercise will now be conducted across the country.”

The Reporters’ Collective conducted this analysis in collaboration with a group of data analysts for all 243 assembly constituencies, followed by reporting in select constituencies to verify the data analysis.

The large-scale errors we detected in the draft voter lists – including duplicate voters and those registered at fictitious addresses – have been incorporated into the voter database with finality, which will now be used by the ECI to conduct elections in the state in November.

On Monday, the ECI announced that elections for the Bihar legislative assembly will take place in two phases on November 6 and 11. A total of 7.43 crore people are listed as voters.

How It Went Down

On June 24, the ECI announced the SIR of the voter rolls in Bihar.

From June 25 to July 25, the first leg of this SIR was carried out, in which all voters were asked to register afresh. In this month-long phase, booth-level officers (BLO) fanned out across the state to distribute and collect enumeration forms from all voters in Bihar. While initially claiming strict document requirements, amid ensuing chaos, ECI changed the rules midway, asking voters to submit enumeration forms without documents, if they wished.

On August 1, the draft voter list was published. We began our investigation at this point.

We found a litany of errors and malfeasance. In our first report, we found 5,000 dubious voters in the Valmikinagar assembly constituency, who were also registered to vote in the adjacent assembly constituencies of Uttar Pradesh.

We then found over 80,000 voters in three Bihar assembly constituencies of Pipra, Bagaha, and Motihari, who were registered to vote under fake or dubious addresses.

Through our third investigation, we unearthed 5.56 lakh suspect cases of duplication in the draft voter list across 142 assembly constituencies. Of these, the 1.29 lakh cases were most alarming, where all parameters, including age, matched perfectly. We verified several of these voters as duplicates through photo verification or on-ground verification.

ECI tried to counter these findings by claiming that if errors had crept in, they would be cleansed in the second leg of the SIR exercise.

The Bihar Chief Electoral Officer responded to our investigations on X, and tried to play down the findings by claiming, “The current draft rolls published under the SIR are not final. They are explicitly intended for public scrutiny, inviting claims and objections…”

“Any alleged duplication at the draft stage cannot be construed as a ‘final error’ or ‘illegal inclusion’…” he said.

In short, he implied all the problems found in the draft voter list would be sorted by the time the final list was published after the second leg of SIR.

The second leg, lasting two months, began. In this period, local election authorities and their vast army of booth-level officials and volunteers were to verify documents submitted by voters. Political party volunteers or other electors were told to file claims recommending deletions from and additions to the draft list. These claims were to be approved or rejected after a purportedly detailed exercise by the ECI officials, including ground checks and document verification.

It is while reporting on this leg of SIR, in our last investigation, we reached the Dhaka assembly constituency in East Champaran. We discovered that under the cover of the chaos, the BJP had repeatedly attempted to delete around 80,000 Muslim voters from the constituency’s rolls.

On September 30, the final list was put out. ECI patted itself on the back, calling the completed exercise a success. CEC claimed that purification of the Bihar voter rolls had taken place for the first time after 22 years. SIR is soon going to be conducted countrywide, he noted.

Fake Addresses

With the help of our collaborating data analysts, we decided to analyse the finalised voter list of all 243 Bihar assembly constituencies. We followed the same methodology we had while analysing the draft list. The methodology mimics the computer-based checks that the ECI is supposed to carry out internally on voter lists to identify potential duplicates and narrow down on other errors.

Here is what we have found.

1.32 crore voters continue to have dubious or fake addresses in these finalised voter rolls. We classify dubious and fake addresses as those where the ECI has registered more than 20 voters under the same address.

In the Barachatti assembly constituency, the ECI has registered 877 voters at house number 6. In Matihani constituency, 855 voters are registered at one fictitious address, and in Parsa assembly constituency, 853 voters are now registered to live at fictitious house number 23.

We ranked and compiled such examples of voters registered at dubious addresses across 243 constituencies. The worst twenty examples all had more than 650 voters registered at a single house address in the final voter list.

We decided to go back to the ground, to the crime scene of our very first report. In the draft list, we had found 80,000 voters registered at fake and dubious addresses in just three assembly constituencies of Pipra, Bagaha, and Motihari.

At the time, we had found the most mind-boggling cases in Galimpur Village of Pipra. We had unearthed 509 voters from different families, castes, and communities bundled and registered on one fictitious address. On another fictitious address, 459 voters had been similarly wrongfully registered as one unit.

When voters do not have house numbers, the ECI is required to give each household a unique notional address. In this case, hundreds from different houses had been bundled together, even though many had separate addresses recorded earlier on ECI records.

We went back to Galimpur to check if the Bihar CEO had been right. Had the ‘errors’ of the draft list been corrected in the final list?

In the finalised voter lists for Pipra, we have found that nothing has changed. In the final voter list, 505 voters continue to be bundled under one fictitious address, and 442 voters at another.

We revisited the voters we had interviewed for the earlier report. Shivnath Das was one of the 509 voters bundled under one fictitious address. He said ECI’s booth-level officials had not visited to verify their records and actual place of stay during the second leg of the SIR.

“No one asked us anything during this time. We ourselves questioned the BLOs and offered every possible cooperation, but nothing happened. No one came forward from anywhere. Now, we can’t do anything. The Election Commission should be doing its job. What can we say?” he said.

His neighbour, Dashrath Das, had also been wrongly registered at the same fictitious address. He added, “This is sheer negligence on the part of the Election Commission and BLOs. Many people will be affected. The opposition is raising the issue for good. Even after the uproar, nothing was fixed.”

We then spoke to Vijay Kumar Chaudhury, the BLO for Galimpur village. We wanted to understand if he had carried out any further verification during the second leg of the SIR. He said that he could not comment on the matter. He said there was no forgery at his booth.

​​We made further inquiries with election officials at the constituency level. We later spoke with the Electoral Officer at the district offices, who informed us that Pipra election officials were aware of our report and had read and carefully considered it.

“When we checked the two dubious addresses cited in your report, we did not find any bogus voters. You also said in your report that these were not bogus voters,” he said.

When we followed up by asking why hundreds of voters were assigned the same house address even after verification, he said, “This is the notional numbering system for giving addresses which we have followed for years.”

This is not true. In the absence of a registered address, ECI assigns a notional number as an address to each family at one dwelling. CEC Gyanesh Kumar had, in fact, clarified this to the press when the controversy around fake addresses first erupted in August. He had claimed that election officials had been duly briefed on this method, after which the voters would appear on the new voter list in a “completely new way”.

We investigated the Pipra Electoral Officer’s claim that bogus voters had been purged. We found 1,512 voters in Pipra who hold duplicate voter IDs with identical demographic details and ages.

For example, 21-year-old Ankit Kumar has two voter IDs on Pipra’s final voter list. Against both his IDs, his house number is 111, and his father’s name is Vinod Ram. One of his voter IDs is registered at booth 338 and another at adjoining booth 339.

Dubious Duplicates

Across 243 assembly constituencies, we found 14.35 lakh voters holding two or more voter IDs with perfect matches for all demographics, and the age difference on their duplicate IDs being between 0-5 years. Of these, 3.4 lakh cases in the final list are the most alarming, where all details, including ages, are an exact match.

In our earlier investigation into the draft list, through data analysis and ground check, we had found thousands of duplicate Voter IDs, where even their photos were the same.

We revisited one such case in the Jale assembly constituency. Thirty-two-year-old Mithilesh Kumar had found himself registered at two addresses on the draft list. He continues to be on both in the final as well. This, even after the booth-level officers had become aware of the error.

In Gopalpur assembly constituency in Bhagalpur district, at booth 65, there lives 33-year-old Gulshan Kumar. With all the same details, he, like three other people, continues to hold duplicate voter IDs in the final list. Check the image below. 

Dead Voters Still on the Voter List

In Muzaffarpur city, Ward Councilor Shanat Kumar made repeated attempts to remove his deceased parents, Uma Devi and Chandramani Shahi, from the voter list. His parents had passed away several years ago, but he had found their names listed on the draft list. Shanat tried repeatedly to get their names deleted during the second leg of the SIR. He failed. His dead parents are now voters on the final list as well.

“I am a ward councillor and have repeatedly requested the deletion of more than ten names from my booth, along with my parents. We even took the BLO along and went around to verify, but all the names in the final list remain the same. After the first draft list, there was hope that improvements would be made, but what can be done now? The entire work was done in a hurry, and as a result, this has happened,” he told us. He said he was aware of such dead voters remaining on the final list at several booths.

This is the state of ECI’s ‘purified’ final voter list of Bihar.

ECI has announced the dates for elections in Bihar based on this list and is now preparing to unleash the SIR across the country.

Courtesy: https://www.reporters-collective.in

The post The Mess, called ECI’s Final Voter List for Bihar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Once again, the Election Commission of India (ECI) made the headlines, when on June 29, 2025 it announced that Bihar became the “first state to implement mobile phone-based e-voting during local body elections.” State Election Commissioner Deepak Prasad said while 70.20 per cent of the eligible voters used the e-voting system, 54.63 per cent exercised their franchise by visiting polling booths reported The Hindustan Times. The ECI has termed this move as “a symbol of convenience, security, and empowered participation,” claiming that, “the system was specifically designed for voters who face challenges in reaching polling booths, such as the elderly, disabled, pregnant women, and migrants. Only pre-registered users were allowed to vote via the e-voting platform, he added.

Meanwhile, Madhav Deshpande, with 40 plus years of experience in the field of Computer Science and its Applications and Architecture of Unique Software apart from being an Consultant with the Obama administration, has meanwhile offered his independent critique of this switch by the ECI to the “mobile phone-based e-voting” system implemented without consultation by the election body.

Issues raised by the expert:

• As soon as a voter’s identity is verified and linked to the voter’s thumbprint, FaceID, or PIN, are all identifying documents(photo ID, video ‘selfie’) completely expunged from the system?
• Is the user identity tokenised?
• Is the token table destroyed? If not, how is it ensured ephemeral?
• From item 2 in the Google Play disclosure which says “Some of the data that you submit may be classified as “Personally Identifiable Information” (PII), meaning information that can be used to uniquely identify or contact you, such as your Voter ID number, mobile phone number, or other identifiers (“Personal Information”/”Personally Identifiable Information”)”, it is clear that voter details are actively sought, stored and may even be intended to be used even after vote is cast. It is clear from this that the voter identity is neither tokenised nor is the token table destroyed. This is in complete contradiction to the principle of secret ballot and as such this app must be immediately withdrawn forthwith.
• Item 3 in the same disclosure on Google Play portal says “Please also note that data collected by us from a particular device may be used in conjunction with data from other devices that are linked to the browser”meaning that the personal data is not only stored for the purpose of voter identification, it may be used to identify and monitor the voter’s electronic activity, amounting to electronic surveillance. As such this is infringement of individual freedom and must be banned immediately.
• Operationally, how does the app ensure that the person (voter) identified is the same as the person casting the vote on the phone?
• How does the app ensure that the person is casting their vote with free will and secretly; as against being forced to cast it under threat? If the app cannot guarantee expression of free will of the voter, it is in contradiction to the first principle of democratic voting and must be immediately banned.
• And lastly, the app declares that it cannot guarantee complete security of the data being transmitted over network, meaning that the ballot cannot be guaranteed to be secret and as such its use must be banned forthwith. The disclosure says “…you acknowledge and agree that no transmission of data over the internet or mobile networks can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Accordingly, any transmission of information is done at your sole risk.”
• Technically, the network operators have enough and more tools to siphon data and alter it, insert / delete new data etc. if the data is not adequately secured (as is obvious from 8 above).
• There is no mention of where the distributed journal of data blocks is stored. If the blocks are stored on foreign servers or if the block chain technology implemented is from foreign vendors, it compromises Indian sovereignty and use of such app must be banned immediately.

The Election Commission of India (ECI), a body that has come increasingly under public scrutiny for not just its opaqueness and reluctance for transparency, but worse, been patently guilty of violations of both the Constitution (Articles 324-326) and the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 is now using yet another method, e-voting on the mobile phone—the Voting App—that is vulnerable of several counts. The violations of the fundamental rights to privacy could be violated with the method of storing data collected. The constitutional right of asserting free will in an election and the principle of a secret ballot also stand threatened.

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The post Principles of secret ballot, free will compromised, electronic surveillance a possibility with Voting APP introduced by the ECI: Expert appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In response to this contentious backdrop, a key aspect of the newly relaxed rules involves the utilisation of the 2003 Bihar electoral rolls, which comprise 4.96 crore electors. The ECI has now stated that individuals born after 1987 will not be required to provide proof of their parents’ birth if their names, or their parents’ names, appear on these 2003 rolls. This provision is designed to streamline the verification process and alleviate the documentation burden for a significant portion of the electorate.

According to ECI, this provision is expected to simplify the process for approximately 60% of the state’s total electorate. These electors can simply verify their details against the 2003 rolls and submit a filled Enumeration Form. This accessibility of the 2003 data is intended to expedite the revision process for both electors and Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

Using 2003 rolls when names are not listed

The ECI has further clarified that even if an elector’s name is not present in the 2003 Bihar Electoral Roll, they can still use an extract from the 2003 Electoral Roll to substantiate details for their mother or father. In such instances, no other corroborating documents for their parents would be required; the relevant extract or details from the 2003 electoral roll would suffice. However, these electors would still be required to submit their own documents along with the filled Enumeration Form.

The mandate and dynamics of electoral roll revisions

According to ECI, the revision of electoral rolls is a fundamental and statutory exercise, mandated by Section 21(2)(a) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and Rule 25 of the Registration of Elector Rules, 1960. The ECI has routinely conducted both annual intensive and summary revisions for 75 years. This ongoing process is essential because electoral rolls are dynamic, constantly changing due to factors such as deaths, internal migration (for reasons like occupation, education, or marriage), and the addition of new voters who reach the age of 18. The current SIR in Bihar aligns with this continuous effort to maintain accurate and current voter records.

In line with these principles, ECI instructions dated June 24, 2025, stipulate that Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs), District Election Officers (DEOs), and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) must make the Electoral Rolls with a qualifying date of January 1, 2003, freely available to all BLOs in hard copy. Additionally, these rolls are to be accessible online on the ECI’s website for public download and use as documentary evidence during the submission of Enumeration Forms. The ECI’s press note dated June 30, 2025, provides further details.

The ECI’s press noted dated June 30, 2025 can be read here

Commencement and operational aspects of SIR in Bihar

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) officially began in Bihar, as the ECI stated on June 28, 2025, with reports indicating the participation of various political parties. To manage this extensive undertaking, the ECI has deployed 77,895 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and is in the process of appointing nearly 20,603 more for new polling stations.

According to ECI’s press note (No. ECI/PN/236/2025), over one lakh volunteers are expected to assist electors, with a focus on older individuals, the sick, Persons with Disabilities (PwD), and other vulnerable groups. Recognised National and State Political Parties registered with the ECI have appointed 1,54,977 Booth Level Agents (BLAs, with scope for more appointments). The distribution of new Enumeration Forms (EF) has commenced door-to-door across all 243 Assembly Constituencies of Bihar for the existing 7,89,69,844 electors. Online submission of these forms is also enabled. Of the current electorate, 4.96 crore individuals whose names were on the 2003 electoral roll’s last intensive revision need only verify their details, fill the Enumeration Form, and submit it.

Divisional Commissioners and District Magistrates are engaging BLOs full-time for the SIR, and SMS notifications are being sent to 5,74,07,022 registered mobile numbers in Bihar to raise awareness.

Past revisions and political discourse

The Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to conduct an Intensive Revision in Bihar, which effectively entails preparing fresh electoral rolls, has ignited considerable political discussion. This initiative has drawn criticism, with the Congress party voicing concerns about the potential for deliberate voter exclusion facilitated by state machinery.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also weighed in, characterising the move as “more dangerous than NRC (National Register of Citizens)” and suggesting that her state, scheduled for elections next year, could be the actual underlying objective. Such reactions underscore the heightened political sensitivities frequently associated with electoral roll revisions, particularly in states approaching elections.

The Congress, through its empowered action group of leaders and experts (EAGLE), has formally opposed the revision exercise, asserting that it poses a risk of wilful voter exclusion.

In a statement shared by AICC General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal on ‘X’, the party declared its opposition to what it termed the “devious Special Intensive Revision exercise ordered by the ECI for Bihar.” The Congress leaders further indicated that by undertaking such a revision in Bihar and other states, the ECI implicitly acknowledges existing issues with India’s electoral rolls.

Challenges to ECI’s authority and historical precedent

The ECI’s current revision in Bihar has drawn sharp criticism regarding its legal premise and scope. Notably, senior social activist Dr. Pyare Lal Garg has questioned the ECI’s move, contending that it “usurps the powers to test ‘Indian citizenship’,” a function he asserts does not lie with the ECI. Dr. Garg has stated that the latest decision by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is not only “unlawful and hasty” but also “violates the Indian Constitution and the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.”

Historical records show intensive revisions were conducted in 1952-56, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1983-84, 1987-89, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003, and 2004. These were however carried out, over the time and duration required and available under law, following due process under both the RPA Act 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

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The post Bihar 2025 Election: EC drops parental birth document requirement for 4.96 crore electors and their children in Bihar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

While the Opposition “merely protests in press conferences”, news reports on Sunday, June 29 suggest that the ECI is riding roughshod over all concerns and going ahead anyway!

This article by an expert, associated with Vote for Democracy asks:

• Is this move not a flagrant breach of Election Law?
• Is it move not part of a nefarious design meant to deal a serious blow to our election system and the Universal Right to Franchise?

This article further demands:

Has CEC Gyaneshwar Kumar been appointed to:

• Utterly violate Clause 19 of the Representation of Peoples’ Act 1950 (hereinafter called RP ACT 1950)?
• To violate the RP ACT 1950 selectively against the poor, unlettered, homeless property-less, deprived citizenry?
• To also surreptitiously CAA 2019 & the dangerous NRC?

Does the CEC have the Constitutional Authority under Law:

• To define and judge the citizenship rights?
• To usurp the powers of the Parliament?

In June 24, in a sudden move just months before the forthcoming 2025 Bihar Vidhan Sabha Elections, the ECI under the present CEC has woken up to a special revision of electoral rolls, a process that has to be undertaken strictly in accordance with election law (Representation of People’s Act, 1951) and of course the Constitution.

This unilaterally announced and fundamentally flawed decision of the ECI must be seen in the context of a series of data denials of information to the opposition parties and the general public. Under Articles 324-326 of the Indian Constitution, all data preserved by the ECI is in good faith of the “people of India” and not under the control of a government then in power. The ECI has, in recent months undemocratically changed its own rules not to make available videography of polling booths post-closing time and has, been obdurately refusing to make available to the Opposition and public previous Electoral Roles (to enable detection of mass deletions and mass exclusions) in data which is in a readable and searchable format,

In this background of complete breakdown of trust and communication between the people themselves, Opposition parties and the ECI, the ECI issues this sudden diktat on June 24, 2025. Using a newly coined and specially designed term, ‘Special Intensive Revision’ of Electoral Rolls, vide its No. 23/ESR/2025 dated June 24, 2025—an exercise that finds no legitimacy in either Article 324 of the Constitution of India nor in the Representation of Peoples’ Act 1950, nor either in the Electors Registration Rules 1960.

With these usurped powers, the ECI has issued “instructions dated June 24, 2024, addressed to the Chief Electoral Officer Bihar, Patna directing therein the ‘Special Intensive Revision’ of Electoral Rolls, by July 26, 2025.” While claiming that the exercise has been necessitated because of “new demographic factors that have emerged in recent times”, the ECI’s decisions/actions do not find any objective basis.

The ECI has thereby directed the CEO Bihar to perform this self-appointed duty to decide as to whether each one of the voters is an Indian citizen or not, an exercise that the ECI with well delineated powers under the Constitution and the RPA-1950 is simply not authorised to do.

The ECI has further delegated this onerous task to the Block Level Officers (BLOs) who are, usually, Class 3 employees and cannot be authorised to decide on the citizenship of all the electors. No law empowers them to do so, especially those electors who have been registered to vote over several decades. Which means those voters who have enjoyed the constitutional right to universal adult franchise. As a result of this step, this scrutiny of Bihar voters who today touch 80 million –and increase from 77.26 million in the 2024 Lok Sabha (last June) —needs to be undertaken in just over a month!!! Will this process — hastily announced and compressed for completion in less than four weeks– moreover, one that has no basis in law or the Constitution be undertaken without the fundamental violation of Registration of Electors Rule 1960—since the legally mandate and mandatory time required for each step of this task has simply been overlooked, deliberately?

Enormity of the new task to be accomplished in one month

STATE WISE NUMBER OF ELECTORS – BIHAR

Source: https://www.eci.gov.in/general-election-to-loksabha-2024-statistical-reports

Under which Law does the ECI claims to draw the powers for such a draconian task?

The ECI in its directive letters No. 23/2025-ERS (Vol. II) dated June 24, 2025 (ibid) has claimed that it is empowered to do so under Article 324 of the Constitution of India and section 21 of the Representation of People, Act, 1950.

Let us examine the said provisions.

Article 324 in Constitution of India

324. Superintendence, direction and control of elections to be vested in an Election Commission

(1) The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to Parliament and to the Legislature of every State and of elections to the offices of President and Vice-President held under this Constitution shall be vested in a Commission (referred to in this Constitution as the Election Commission).

The ECI has been empowered to, ‘The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls’, but not to decide as to whether one is a citizen of India or not.

This is because there is a separate Citizenship Act, 1955 and Indian Citizenship is decided as per provisions of Article 5 to 11 of the Constitution of India.

Article 11 reads as under: Parliament to regulate the Right of Citizenship by law.

Therefore, the June 24, “directives” of the Commission are unconstitutional and violative of the provisions of the articles related to Citizenship. Moreover, the ECI is unauthorisedly and illegally assuming the powers of Parliament, especially when it is seeking certain documentary evidence from any persons who are not included in the electoral roles of 2003 and are born before July 1, 1987 in as much as:

A person most deprived being homeless, unlettered, having no identity card, no land, no permanent residence certificate issued by Government, no passport, no pension payment order as he she does draw any service pension, issued before July 1, 1987 and who has not been included in the electors list earlier before 2003, either because the person is a minor, or because of the dereliction of duty by the ECI will be severely impacted.

In order to remove such arbitrariness, discrimination, favouritism, deprivation and chaos, keeping in view the actual conditions of the country provisions have been made under the RPA Act 1950 and The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, to which we shall refer a little later.

First, the Clause 21 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1950:

The said Clause 21 reads as under:

[21. Preparation and revision of electoral rolls. — (1) The electoral roll for each constituency shall be prepared in the prescribed manner by reference to the qualifying date and shall come into force immediately upon its final publication in accordance with the rules made under this Act.

2[(2) the said electoral roll—

(a) shall, unless otherwise directed by the Election Commission for reasons to be recorded in writing, be revised in the prescribed manner by reference to the qualifying date—

As such in this clause 21 (1) one needs to concentrate on following mandate of the law to the ECI:

i) shall be prepared in the prescribed manner

ii) In accordance with the rules made under this Act.

ECI cannot and should not travel beyond the four walls by way of unauthorised outreach activities rather should concentrate on its sacred duty of conduction elections in a fair, transparent and absolutely impartial manner.

Consequently, it is clear that the instructions issued by the ECI, are patent violation of the provision of clause 21(1) as this intended action will nullify all the existing roles containing all electors that have been in effect –granting Universal Adult Franchise–in 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections apart from the elections to the Bihar state legislature during this long period of over two decades.

Further, this clause 21 of the RPA Act, 1950 is subordinate to the umbrella Clause 15 which reads as under:

15. Electoral roll for every constituency. —For every constituency there shall be an electoral roll which shall be prepared in accordance with the provisions of this Act under the superintendence, direction and control of the Election Commission.

Therefore, Clause 15 makes it patently clear that an electoral roll which shall be prepared in accordance with the provisions of this Act. Possibly deliberately and with mala fide intent, the ECI has failed or refused to note is that all provisions for the ‘preparation of electoral rolls’ are to be read together, not just Clause 21 selectively.

There is no denying the fact that the ECI is empowered to have the superintendence, direction and control of the Election Commission for preparation of the electoral rolls but it is of a great significance that the ECI is duty bound to accomplish the task in accordance with the provisions of this ACT 1950, nothing more, nothing less.

Let us now glance at the provisions of the Act, ibid wherein, under Clause 19, the conditions for the registration of an elector are codified which the ECI has miserably failed to observe/maintain.

The same are reproduced here as under:

4 [19. Conditions of registration. —Subject to the foregoing provisions of this Part, every person who —

(a) Is not less than [eighteen years] of age on the qualifying date, and

(b) is ordinarily resident in a constituency,

shall be entitled to be registered in the electoral roll for that constituency.]

It is crystal clear that there are only two conditions required for any person to get registered as an elector namely the person should be of 18 years or more and should be ordinarily residing in the constituency. Further it is the clear mandate given to the ECI and the inherent right of the person that the person shall be registered in the electoral rolls. From the above provisions it is obvious that the ECI has no right to demand the documents as enumerated in its order from each and every elector who is was not registered in 2003. Worse, merely owning a house or a property in an area does not make one an ordinarily residing citizen as defined under Clause 20 of the rules Ibid which is as under:

20. Meaning of “ordinarily resident”. —6[(1) A person shall not be deemed to be ordinarily resident in a constituency on the ground only that he owns, or is in possession of, a dwelling house therein.

(1A) A person absenting himself temporarily from his place of ordinary residence shall not by reason thereof cease to be ordinarily resident therein.

Parliament, the law-making body—legislature– has been conscious of the need to weed out the wrongly registered voters (electors) and the provision to address this malady is contained under Clause 16 of the RPA Act 1950 and the same is as under:

16. Disqualifications for registration in an electoral roll. — (1) A person shall be disqualified for registration in an electoral roll if he—

(a) is not a citizen of India; or

(b) is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court; or

(c) is for the time being disqualified from voting under the provisions of any law relating to corrupt 1*** practices and other offences in connection with elections.

The ECI’s unconstitutional and bombastic claim that it will seek a certificate of birth under Sub-clause(a) of Clause 16 is preposterous. Will the ECI then also seek a certificate of being sound mind as provided under subclause (b)of the Clause ibid.

What do the Rules for registration prescribe for getting registered as an elector?

Under Rule 13(1) of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960, it is provided that a person has to submit an application in form No. 6. There is no distinction provided in Rule 13 (1) of the Rules between voters registered in 2003 or thereafter at any time. How can therefore the ECI make conditions that are contrary to this mandate?

The form also does not prescribe for the need to produce any certificates as has recently been announced by the ECI arbitrarily.

Under the 1960 Rules, there is a further provision that allows for correction in electoral roles—a person has to apply in form No. 8. To raise any objection for a wrongful or ‘fake’ inclusion of voters, an application has to be moved in Form No. 7. There is also a punishment prescribed for any false declaration made and hence the present architect newly framed by ECI smacks of a move uncalled for.

Time lines for the deletion of name as per instructions issued by the ECI vide No. 23/INST/2023-ERS Dated August 11, 2023

An Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) is not empowered to undertake this task, much less the BLO!

The Commission taking all aspects into consideration, including with a view to wrongful deletion during election year has directed that ERO shall not resort to a deletion without a form 7 and without following due process of verification as laid down in para 4 of the above said instructions. The due process of verification as laid down and prescribed in para 6 (ii) (iii) of the above instructions, is as under:

An application has to be submitted by an Objector on the prescribed form No. 7 for deletion of any name, supported by a declaration that the information filled therein is not false and a receipt is to be issued against the receipt of the application, there is a punitive clause for false entries as under:

Note. – Any person who makes a statement or declaration which is false and which he either knows or believes to be false or does not believe to be true, is punishable under section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (43 of 1950)

1. The election authority has to serve a registered notice to the concerned elector by registered post and the receipt of the delivery of the notice is to be kept in record
2. The person served the notice is supposed to reply with in 15 days after the issuance of the notice.
3. If no reply is received then the election authority asks the BLO to conduct a visit to the spot and makes all the records of time and date of visit, the person visiting and the person and exact place visited, the enquiries conducted and submit it to the competent authority who thereafter on expiry of further 15 days issues orders for the deletion.

The ECI– in its own wisdom– has prescribed following documents for the ‘special intensive revision’, oblivious of the ground realities or despite being aware of the same.

• any identity card
• pension payment order,
• identity card or document issued in India by government before June 1, 1987
• birth certificate issued by the competent authority,
• passport,
• matriculation certificates,
• permanent residence certificate issued by competent state authority and
• any land or house allotment certificate by government, among others.

Ground realities 

1. To seek a birth certificate of a person born before 1987 and also of his parents is nothing but a move calculated for exclusion. This also smacks of an indirect move to bring in the controverted National Register of Citizens (NRC), under challenge in the Supreme Court. Basically, this is also contrary to the law of the land in as much as the registration of births and deaths Act came into existence only in 1969 as under:

“The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (Act No. 18 of 1969) [31st May 1969] An Act to provide for the regulation of registration of births and deaths and for matters connected therewith”.

2. Those who are born before July 1, 1987 and were registered as voters after 2003 cannot be denied their right as Indian citizen by the ECI, without proceedings conducted as per law by the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955, to decide the citizenship issue.

3. Civil registration of births and deaths until 2011 (when the last Census was conducted) were at only 82.4% and 66.4% respectively. How then can we imagine that every legitimate birth and death of both father and mother of those born on or before July 1, 1987 will have been recorded through a birth certificate?

4. Even after making birth registration mandatory in 2023, as on March 11,2025 still 10 % of Indian births go unregistered.

5. The National Family Health Survey-3 conducted from December 2005 to August 2006, shows only 6.3% birth registrations in Bihar, 7.3% in UP, 9.5% in Jharkhand and 16.4% in Rajasthan while the national figure for this was 41.4%, and birth certificates granted only for 27.1% of the population.

6. In 199, in India only 52.1% population was able to read and write, around half of the population is totally unlettered. The figures for Bihar show the literacy rate at only 38.48% and among females only 22.89%. To go further, in 2001 only 87,60,589 out of 8,29,98,509 persons i.e., a poor 55% of the people had passed their Std X examinations making the ECI’s demand of a matriculation certificate a cruel joke.

7. As of December 31, 2023, 6.5 percent (92,624,661) of Indian citizens possessed a valid passport; now CEC Mr. Gyaneshwar is on to deny them their voting rights on grounds of not having a passport!

8. Between 2019 to 2023 the total number of passports issued in Bihar are 20,12,357, that is catering to around 1.5% population. (Parbhat Khabar digital Bihar May 17, 2025 6.05am)

9. 4% population does not possess own houses per 2011 census, but Mr. Gyaneshwar wants them to show papers of own house otherwise lose electoral rights.

10. gov.in › images › AADHAAR_NUMBERS_ENGLISHGOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION …As per RGI data, the total projected population (2022) of India is 137.30 crore (approx.). As on June 30, 2022, a total of 133.586 crore Aadhaar cards have been generated. Around 4 crores of Indians have not got even an Aadhaar card.

Under these circumstances, one wonders as to why- instead of using the scant available resources for conducting a fair impartial and transparent just elections in the state of Bihar, the ECI is undertaking an unlawful and unconstitutional electoral revision exercise, hell bent in punishing the poor and hapless who enjoys one right above all, the right to universal adult franchise.

(The author, one of the experts associated with Vote for Democracy is also Former Dean, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh)

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The post Bihar: Sinister move by ECI as ‘intensive’ revision of electoral roles set to exclude vast majority of legitimate voters appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A day after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national spokesperson Manoj Jha accused officials of the Chief Minister’s office of pressuring Election Commission officials to declare results in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has come out to openly challenge election results.

Speaking to media-persons in Patna, Yadav said, “We’ve won 130 seats and the mandate was in our favour, but the Election Commission’s results were declared in favour of NDA.” He alleged counting irregularities took place in connection with 20 seats. Earlier the party had approached the Election Commission (EC) but their claims were dismissed.

“We lost about 20 seats where irregularities took place in counting postal ballots and our candidates’ queries were not heard by the Election Commission,” claimed Yadav, further asking, “Why were the postal ballots counted at night and were the guidelines followed?”

The party has now demanded video footage of counting.

कई और क्षेत्रों में सांसदों की अनाधिकृत मौजूदगी की शिकायत आ रही है।पूरी मतगणना के वीडियो फुटेज जारी होने चाहिए। @CEOBihar @ECISVEEP https://t.co/4In8EMf8H0

— Manoj Kumar Jha (@manojkjhadu) November 13, 2020

High drama had ensued on counting day with result declaration taking what many felt an inordinate amount of time, thus forcing EC officials to address a press conference where they clarified that the number of polling booths had gone up in order to ensure social distancing in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a larger number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) being used. Additionally, postal ballots were used by voters above the age of 80 and those needed to be counted.

Moreover, counting was taking place in 55 locations, up from the previous 38. At each location, counting was taking place in more than one hall and there were 14 tables in each location. There were anywhere between 19 to 55 rounds of counting in different locations at the time of EC’s press conference at about 1:30 PM on counting day.

But Manoj Jha alleged in an interview to BBC, “From 1:30 PM to 5 PM the victory numbers remained frozen. This is not possible in dynamic counting. This was done to suppress our numbers and manipulate the polls.” Jha further alleged, “My Hilsa candidate was told he had won by 566 votes and asked to take the certificate. But even as he was waiting for the certificate, he was told that he had lost by 8 votes!” He also claimed recounting requests by RJD were denied, but when BJP-JD(U) asked for recounts in places where RJD had won, their request was granted. But the EC has dismissed Jha’s allegations.

Related:

What does the Bihar election result mean?
Bihar Elections: Exit polls predict neck-and-neck fight
Second Phase of Assembly Elections in Bihar
Bihar Elections: First phase of voting concludes
Bihar elections: Is Nitish Kumar’s popularity dropping?
Bihar Elections: Deconstructing the Muslim monolith

The post Bihar elections: Tejaswi Yadav alleges counting fraud appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Bihar assembly election results are out and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has managed to retain power. But the election results have also showcased some other interesting trends. The electorate has spoken, now let’s find out what exactly have they said and what it means.

Too soon to write off the RJD

Though the Mahagathbandhan or the Grand Alliance may have only cobbled together 110 seats in the 243-member assembly, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) managed to secure 75 seats on its own. This is one more than the 74 the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got on its own. This is no mean feat.

In the last elections. The RJD that was in an alliance with the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Congress, had managed to win 80 seats. Though, there has been a drop of five seats, the party appears to be still going strong, despite losing ally Nititsh Kumar in 2017 and the emergence of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

Credit for the party’s performance in the 2020 elections goes to brothers Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav for their massive outreach and focus on key issues like unemployment. While their father’s political legacy may have been reduced to political memes and jokes on account of the fodder scam, the sons are leaving no stone unturned in charting their own political journey by focusing on what really matters… people’s aspirations. It is indeed too soon to write off the RJD and the NDA would do well to not get complacent.

Left is still relevant

The three Left parties; Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPIM) and Communist Party of India – Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) have outperformed all other parties in terms of strike rate. They have won 16 out of the 29 constituencies in which they fielded candidates, a combined strike rate of 55.17 percent! Their combined tally of 16 wins comes within sniffing distance of the Congress’s 19 wins. 

In terms of individual strike rates, while the CPI won two out of the six seats it contested (strike rate 33.33 percent), the CPI (M) won two out of the four seats it contested (strike rate 50 percent). Meanwhile, the CPI (ML) won 12 out of the 19 seats it contested (strike rate 63.15 percent).

The success of the Left comes from their support of grassroots movements related to rights of peasants and workers, two groups of people who have suffered twin blows of lockdown related financial hardship and years of systemic repression with various vested interests ranging from apathetic regimes comprising the privileged elite, to their crony capitalist friends who have traditionally profited from exploiting the natural resources in the region.

The AIMIM factor

Shortly after AIMIM started showing leads in several key constituencies, particularly in the Muslim dominated Seemanchal region, many people took to Twitter to blame Asauddin Owaisi for splitting the Muslim vote. But the bigger issue that requires closer examination is that why is it that the AIMIM has captured the imagination of so many people?

In our previous analysis of the Muslim vote in the Bihar elections, we had identified key constituencies to watch out for in this election. Now that the results are out, perhaps it is time to revisit these constituencies, especially those in districts in the Seemanchal region i.e Kishanganj, Katihar, Araria and Purnea. Seemanchal has a sizable Muslim population of anywhere between 35 to 75 percent and amounts to a total of 24 assembly seats.

Let us look at Seemanchal where the AIMIM has made the maximum gains. The AIMIM has won five seats, all in Seemanchal:

Amour (Purnea district): AIMIM state chief Akhtarul Iman contested from here and won 94,459 votes or 51.17 percent of all votes cast in this constituency, giving him a margin of 52,515 votes from Saba Zafar of JD (U) who came in second with 41,944 votes. In 2015, Congress candidate Abdul Jalil Mastan had won from here with a margin of 51,997 votes, but this year, he trialed at a distant third spot with 31,863 votes.

Bahadurganj (Kishanganj district): Mohammed Anzar Naimi won 85,855 or 49.77 percent of all votes cast in this constituency. His victory margin was an impressive 45,215 that pushed VIP’s Lakhan Lal Pandit to the second spot with 40,640 votes. In 2015, M.D Tauseef Alam of the Congress had won this constituency, but this time he came in third with 30, 204 votes.

Baisi (Purnea district): AIMIM’s Sayed Ruknuddin Ahmed won 68,416 or 38.27 percent of the votes. Though the margin of victory was only 16, 373 votes over BJP’s Vinod Kumar who won 52, 043 votes. The margin of victory is less than half of what it was when RJD’s Abdus Subhan won in 2015. This time though, Subhan came in third with only 38,254 or 21.4 percent of the vote.

Jokihat (Araria district): AIMIM’s Shanawaz (59,596 votes or 34.22 percent) defeated RJD’s Sarfaraz Alam (52,213 or 29.98 percent) by a relatively narrow margin of 7,383 votes. Interestingly, in 2015, Alam who was then contesting on a JD (U) ticket had won with a margin of 53,980 votes! This time, BJP’s Ranjit Yadav came in third with 48,933 or 28.1 percent of the vote.

Kochadhaman (Kishanganj district): Muhammad Izhar Asfi won 79,893 or 49.45 percent of the votes, winning the constituency with a margin of 36,143 votes. His closest contender was JD (U)’s Mujahid Alam who came in second with 43,750 or 27.08 percent of the votes. Alam had won in 2015 with a relatively narrow margin of 18,843 votes. RJD’s Mohammed Shahid Alam came in third with just 26,134 votes or 16.18 percent.

It is noteworthy that in three out of the five constituencies it won, AIMIM had managed to amass close to 50 percent of the vote. It is also noteworthy that in four of these constituencies i.e Amour, Bahadurganj, Baisi and Kochadhamam, the AIMIM’s emergence affected the Congress and the RJD in a big way. In Jokihat, switching from JD(U) to RJD cost the candidate his seat!

This is where one needs to examine some rather uncomfortable facts and ask the question: What role did identity and ideology play in determining the electoral choices of people? On the one hand the resurgence of the BJP suggests a consolidation of the Hindutva votes. One the other is a party like AIMIM led by Asauddin Owaisi who has often taken a hardline stand on communally sensitive issues. Does the emergence of of AIMIM suggest a consolidation of the hardline Muslim votes? Or is this a failure of the secular parties like RJD and Congress in reaching out adequately to people living in some of the most backward regions in one of the least developed states in the country?

Nitish Kumar’s place in the new power dynamic

The BJP has outperformed its ally the JD (U) in this election cementing its position of power in the alliance. And though the alliance has retained Nitish Kumar as the chief minister, how long will it be before the BJP begins to show who’s the boss in what is clearly no longer a partnership of equals? Anti-incumbency and fatigue with the Nitish government may have also played as role in JD (U)’s dwindling popularity.

Moreover, the BJP can also claim credit for the late swing in the votes as the NDA made massive gains in the third phase of the elections, shortly after rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It also appears that the LJP eroded away some of the votes from the JD (U).

According to the findings of a Lokniti-CSDS post poll survey reported in the Indian Express, “In BJP-contested seats, three-fourths of traditional BJP supporters voted for the NDA, whereas in JD(U)-contested seats, the support shown by BJP supporters for the NDA candidate was just over 50% (Chart 2). In such seats, the LJP seems to be have swung a segment of the traditional BJP voters in its favour (around 13%), thus damaging the prospects of the JD(U) candidates. Many of these traditional BJP voters who shifted to LJP were Dusadhs and, to some extent, those from the upper castes.”

Women’s vote helped NDA

Nitish’s charisma and promise of prohibition had drawn women voters in record numbers in 2015. This year too, the voter turnout among women was high, and constituencies that saw voter turnout of women in excess of 68 percent, were won predominantly by the BJP or JD (U).

Here are the results for constituencies where female voter turnout was over 68 percent:

Won by BJP: Ramnagar, Dhaka, Chhatapur, Pipra, Narpatganj, Sikti, Pranpur, Korha, Baruraj

Won by JD (U): Babubahri, Nirmali, Triveniganj, Alamnagar, Barari, Sakra

Won by RJD: Laukaha, Thakurganj, Minapur, Singheshwar

Won by Congress: Kadwa, Kasba

Won by Left parties: Balrampur, Bakhri

Won by AIMIM: Amour, Baisi, Jokihat, Kochadhaman

So, what was the draw for women voters this time? Was it the charism of ‘sushasan babu’ Nitish Kumar and his commitment to prohibition that helped get the NDA the much-coveted women’s vote? Or did women also vote based on identity and ideology? Are women in Bihar also taking an increasingly hardline stand on all matter communal? This requires deeper investigation.

Caste equations

According to the findings of a Lokniti-CSDS post poll survey reported in the Indian Express, while Yadavs and Muslims sided with the MGB, Kurmis-Koeris and Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) appeared to have voted for NDA, with Dalits being the swing vote. The report says, “Muslims and Yadavs, RJD’s traditional voters, consolidated in a major way behind the MGB, at least in the first two phases. Close to nine of every 10 Yadavs and three-fourths of Muslims voted for the MGB. However, to be able to make a bid for power, the MGB needed an MY+. The Dalit vote came to the MGB in the first two phases, and the alliance with the Communist parties was a crucial factor. In the last phase, Dalits seem to have swayed towards the NDA, according to our data. Within the Dalit community, support for the MGB was restricted to the Ravidas community and the Dusadhs. Musahars, however, mostly voted for the NDA. The NDA also got four-fifths of votes from Kurmis, the community to which Nitish belongs, and nearly three-fifths of the EBC vote.”

Mismanagement by Congress

The Congress needs to work a lot harder if it wants to remain politically relevant in a state where it has emerged victorious previously. There are allegations that the Congress neither had a clear strategy as to which seats to demand, nor did it have proper candidates to field from these seats. Popularity of the party in the chosen constituency and winnability of the candidate are two basic factors that any party should take into consideration during the poll planning process. The Congress contested 70 seats, but won only 19. This may be because of the absence of a connect with the electorate prior to the elections. The Congress had poor outreach before the polls, it’s leaders had not built any connect with the people and voters did not know what the party even stood for any more.

Allegations of poll fraud

Even as the electorate watched a thrilling election that went down to the wire in Bihar, allegations of poll fraud started cropping up. The RJD has alleged that many of its candidates were declared winners and asked to get certificates, but were subsequently told that they had lost. RJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha told BBC, “From 1:30 PM to 5 PM the victory numbers remained frozen. This is not possible in dynamic counting. This was done to suppress our numbers and manipulate the polls.” Jha further alleged, “My Hilsa candidate was told he had won by 566 votes and asked to take the certificate. But even as he was waiting for the certificate, he was told that he had lost by 8 votes!” Jha claims there were at least 15 such seats where this has happened. Had they won those seats, RJD would have won.

Jha filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging that officials from the Chief Minister’s office, BJP-JD(U) leaders and a top election official, pressured other election officials to show victory for BJP-JD(U) candidates. He also claimed recounting requests by RJD were denied, but when BJP-JD(U) asked for recounts in places where RJD had won, their request was granted. But the EC has dismissed Jha’s allegations.

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Bihar Elections: Exit polls predict neck-and-neck fight
Second Phase of Assembly Elections in Bihar
Bihar Elections: First phase of voting concludes
Bihar elections: Is Nitish Kumar’s popularity dropping?
Bihar Elections: Deconstructing the Muslim monolith

The post What does the Bihar election result mean? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The third phase of the Bihar elections ended on Saturday with polling in 78 constituencies including Sikta, Benipatti, Balrampur, Saharsa and Darbhanga. According to the Election Commission, voter turnout stood at just over 55 percent. Here are the latest figures of poll percentages (constituency and gender-wise).

pic.twitter.com/byKLj0TTAU

— PIB In Bihar ?? Mask yourself ? (@PIB_Patna) November 9, 2020

It is clear that the turnout of women voters has been higher than men with turnouts over 68 percent in many constituencies in districts such as Madhubani, Araria, Kishanganj, purnia, Katihar, Muzaffarpur, East and West Champarran. Now, traditionally, women voters were seen as the reason Nitish Kumar came to power when he became Bihar Chief Minister for the first time in 2015. Will the queens of Bihar crown a new king this time?

Meanwhile, as soon as polling closed for the day on Saturday, exit poll results started coming out. Most polls predict a close contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Mahagahathbandhan (MGB) or Grand Alliance led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).  The NDA comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Vikassheel Insan Pary (VIP) and the Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM). The Grand Alliance comprises RJD, the Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India – Marxist (CMPM) and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (CPI-ML). Chirag Paswan led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) broke away from the NDA just before the elections and is expected to carve away votes from the JD-U.

While the C Voter exit poll predicts that the NDA will get 116 seats as opposed to MGB’s 120, ABP’s exit poll gives the NDA between 104 to 128, while it gives MGB between 108 to 131 seats. But it is the India Today-My Axis Poll that gives Tejashwi Yadav a clean sweep with 139-161 seats as opposed to just 69-91 for the NDA. All polls give LJP at least one and as many as 5 seats, with others and independents vying for the rest.

India Today -Axis My India Exit polls give a clear majority of 139-162 seats to MGB in Bihar. NDA as per this poll gets 69-91. Other exit polls, except Today’s Chanakya which gives MGB 180 seats, predict a close contest between NDA & MGB. Let’s wait now for the exact poll results pic.twitter.com/A2e6fuMrYP

— Soumyajit Pattnaik (@soumyajitt) November 7, 2020

When it comes to the others, Upendra Kushwaha led Grand Secular Democratic Front that includes Kushwaha’s own Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), Asauddin Owaisi’s All India All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (Democratic), and Democratic Party (Socialist). The other major alliance of Dalit-Bahujans-Muslims if the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) between Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) and Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan’s AzadSamaj Party (ASP).

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The post Bihar Elections: Exit polls predict neck-and-neck fight appeared first on SabrangIndia.

As many as 1,463 candidates will test their political merits on Tuesday when 94 out of a total of 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly go to polls. These constituencies are spread across 17 districts. This could be the most crucial phase of the Bihar Assembly election as the fates of some of the greatest leaders will be decided by voters on November 3.

These include Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap. The brothers are sons of two former Chief Ministers; Laloo Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi. While Tejashwi will contest from Vaishali’s Raghopur constituency, Tej Pratap will contest from Hasanpur. While the BJP has pitched Satish Kumar opposite Tejaswi, Tej Pratap is pitted against Raj Kumar Ray of Janata Dal (United), a two-time MLA.

Meanwhile, Tej Pratap’s father-in-law Chandrika Rai who switched over to the JD (U) is up against RJD’s Chhotelal Rai in Parsa. Meanwhile, another heated electoral battle is expected in JD (U)’s Shravan Kumar and Congress’s Gunjan Patel in Nalanda.

Altogether, the RJD has 56 candidates in the fray in this phase, while other members of the Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan contesting as follows:

Congress 24 seats

Communist Party of India (Marxist – Leninist) CPI (ML) 6 seats

CPI 4 seats

CPI (M) 4 seats

The break up for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is as under:

BJP 46 seats

JD (U) 43 seats

Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) 5 seats

Other major alliances include the Upendra Kushwaha led Grand Secular Democratic Front that includes Kushwaha’s own Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), Asauddin Owaisi’s All India All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (Democratic), and Democratic Party (Socialist). This is a new alliance that was announced in early October.

The other major alliance of Dalit-Bahujans-Muslims if the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) between Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) and Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan’s AzadSamaj Party (ASP). Meanwhile, it is unwise to completely write off the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) led by Chirag Paswan who broke away from the NDA recently.

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Bihar Elections: Deconstructing the Muslim monolith
Bihar Elections: If Chirag Paswan is Hanuman, PM Modi is Ram, who is Nitish Kumar?

The post Second Phase of Assembly Elections in Bihar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: PTI
 

Battle for Bihar Assembly is actually among three main parties – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal – United (JD-U). If two of them are aligned, the coalition is believed to have won the battle; the rest of the political parties having little impact.

In past four elections, the mandate given by the public was clear and the leading coalition also made a dent in the competitor’s vote share.

In 2010 assembly elections, the BJP and JD (U) managed an unequivocal vote of its Social Umbrella and the poll was to ensure that Nitish Kumar retains the office.

In the 2015 assembly election, RJD+ JD (U) coalition had received huge support of its same social umbrella and the coalition also managed to grab a big share from NDA’s traditional voters. In the 2015 assembly elections RJD-JD(U), enjoyed the majority of Kushwaha, Vaishya and other OBCs. Traditionally, Kushwaha society is believed to vote in favor of Nitish Kumar or the candidate of Kushwaha caste.

The NDA coalition also reached out its traditional social umbrella in the 2014 and 2019 Parliament elections. In the 2014 Parliamentary election, Congress removed from the center, Modi era started and it will continue up to 2024 due to a massive victory in 2019 Parliament Elections.

Visibly no enthusiasm has been seen in voters for Nitish Kumar in the upcoming 2020 Assembly elections. Meanwhile, though it may be little, there is a sort of enthusiasm visible for UPA Chief Minister candidate Tejaswi Yadav, as well. The masses are not voting for any particular party or leader. Every assembly seat has a different scenario.

UPA’s Engineered Social Umbrella appears firmer than the last four elections. The voters are clearly not at all convinced about the tall claims of development from the ruling alliance. 

Clearly there is some kind of uneasiness among the NDA voters. The NDA’s Social Umbrella is weakened by the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and rebellion candidates. LJP is severely impacting the performance of JD (U).

For the first time since 1990 and 1995, so many rebel candidates are contesting this assembly election and perhaps most of them will manage a good number of votes. The voters who may vote for them are not even visualising defeat or victory. 

The rebels, who are fighting on LJP symbol or as independents, are impacting heavily at least on the 50 assembly constituencies.

Let’s have an introspection on the assembly areas of the first phase from Shahabad area to Magadha area.

Rajendra Singh, former BJP minister, is on the ticket of LJP in Dinara seat of Rohtas district. Practically, this one could cause JD (U) Minister – Jay Kumar Singh to be pushed out of the contest.

On the neighbouring seat of Karagahar, JD (U) candidate Vaistha Singh is having a very tough time because of Rakesh Siongh Gabru and Uday Singh, son of former minister Ramdhani Singh, who are challenging him on LJP and BSP symbol respectively. And the Congress is giving good contest in Karahgar too.

Meanwhile, former BJP MLA- Rameshwar Chaurasia is in the ring on LJP ticket from Sasaram seat of Rohtas seat. JD(U) fielded RJD MLA Ashok Kumar as its candidate on this seat. Rameshwar Chaurasia is making a clear dent in both, the RJD and JD(U)’s vote bank.

Sunil Pandey, the former LJP MLA from the Tarari seat of Bhojpur district, contesting as an independent candidate. BJP has been simply kicked out of the fight because of his candidature.

In the adjacent constituency of Sandesh, BJP leader and Mukhia, Shweta Singh, is making a mark and weakening JD(U).

Ex-MLA from JD(U) quota, Shribhagwan Kushwaha is contesting on LJP symbol from Jagdishpur seat of Bhojpur district. RJD has a clear edge because of his contest.

There is an interesting fight in the neighboring seat of Shahpur, two candidates from the same family are challenging each-other. BJP candidate Munni Devi has a challenger, Shobha Devi, who is her sister-in-law. The candidature of Shoba Devi is helping RJD a lot in Shahpur.

Ex MLC Hulas Pandey is fighting on LJP symbol in Brahmpur assembly constituency of Buxar district. He has pushed VIP- an ally in NDA, candidate down in the list of favorites.

JD (U) MLA-Dadan Yadav and Dumraon Maharaj- Shivang Singh are contesting as independents in the next seat Dumraon. Akhilesh Singh is contesting on the ticket to LJP. All the three candidates are spoiling the game of JD (U).

Sudhakar Singh, the son of Jagdanand Singh (the state president of RJD), is fighting in Ramgarh, the hot seat of Kaimur district, is facing a lot of trouble because of BSP candidate Ambika Singh Yadav – former MLA of RJD. BJP has little edge in Ramgarh.

BJP is losing significant vote share in Bhabhua seat as ex-MLA of JD(U) Pramod Singh and RLSP’s Virendra Kumar have filed their nominations. There is a close contest between RJD and BJP in Bhabhua.  Clearly, RJD has little edge.

JD(U) appears to be out of contention in Kutumba seat, and the final war between JD(U) rebel candidate Lalan Bhuiyan and Rajesh Kumar of Congress.

BJP candidate Manoj Sharma from Goh assembly seat is having serious troubles as ex-JD(U) MLA and now a rebel candidate Ranvijay Kumar is also contesting.

Generally, everyone considered victory of NDA in Paliganj of Patna district. But after JD(U) offered its symbol to ex-RJD MLA Jaywardhan Yadav, ex-MLA Usha Vidyarthi is contesting as LJP candidate. Her entry has made this seat very interesting.

BJP is having an uneasy situation in Bikram seat as ex-MLA of BJP Anil Kumar is also contesting in the same.

Jehanabad seat of the district with the same name, sees the game is slowly going away from the hands of Education Minister Krishnanandan Verma. And the protagonist is ex-BJP leader Ms Indu Kashyap.

Ex-MLA Sumit Singh has pushed JD(U) out of contest from the Chakai constituency. The main contest is between RJD and Sumit Singh.

Sumit Singh’s brother and former MLA Ajay Kumar Singh is trying his luck on an RLSP ticket from Jamui seat. If he gets a good number of votes, it will not be an easy walk for BJP candidate Shreyasi Singh.

NDA’s campaign has received a strong jolt from the current or former partner- LJP, depending on where you look; New Delhi or Patna.

Though the Mahagathbandhan is not able to convert dissatisfaction and anger totally against the CM Nitish Kumar into votes, but at the votes that rebels and LJP will get, will help Mahagathbandhan directly or indirectly.

Wherever LJP or rebel candidates are contesting and giving a good fight, either LJP or RJD+ alliance should win, surely there will be few exceptions.

BSP is in a serious contest in one seat- Chainpur and LJP is in a serious contest in Dinara.

Independent candidates are contesting in four seats to win in real terms – Kutumba, Dumaraon, Nawada and Warsaliganj.

Surely, a tough contest is on the cards in between RJD and BJP to win maximum seats in the first phase of elections. CPIML is going to perform well and JDU is going to perform perhaps the worst.  One thing may be pertinent enough to say, that within 10th November result of assembly election in Bihar will be known to everyone but still  the cry of migrants,poors,haven’ts of Bihar in this dark pandemic time is unanswered.

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