Too many duplicate voters in revised voter list in Bihar, claim opposition leaders.
If the intensive revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls was meant to purify the voters’ list, the alleged inclusion of a large number of “duplicate” voters in the final roll, critics say, belies that claim.
During the October 9 hearing in the Supreme Court on petitions challenging the exercise, one of the petitioners, the political activist Yogendra Yadav, claimed there are 5,24,000 duplicate names in the final list. “Many may not be fake voters. But the ECI’s protocol requires physical verification. Do they have a de-duplication software at all?” he asked.
The Congress party’s Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts, set up in early 2025 with the aim of monitoring the election process, issued a statement on October 8 claiming that an analysis of the final list had found more than five lakh duplicate names.
“As per our analysis, there are more than 5 lakh duplicate (same name, relative’s name, age, gender and address) voters in the final list published,” the statement said. “What was the point of SIR if there are still more than 5 lakh duplicates? How will ECI verify and clean these now?”
Major General Anil Verma (retd), head of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the leading petitioner in the case before the Supreme Court, said while the organisation had not yet conducted a thorough analysis of the final list, anecdotal evidence, media reports, and the ADR’s own limited study of some polling booths revealed that while genuine voters had been excluded, there were dubious entries in the rolls. This, he said, raised serious questions about the efficacy of the exercise.
“At a small level, we studied the data in certain booths, and we came across duplicate voters who had the same name and address but different EPIC numbers, or there was a minor change in the name, but the name of the husband or the father was the same. Such anomalies show that the SIR was carried out in a hurried manner and without following the commission’s own norms. If a proper house-to-house verification had been conducted, such errors would not have existed in the list,” said Verma.
The Election Commission of India insists that not a single appeal has been filed so far against either any inclusion or exclusion in the final list published on September 30. “No appeal was received as of 13.10.2025 by the district magistrates under Section 24(a) of the Representation of the People Act, with regard to inclusion or deletion of any name by the electoral registration officer (ERO) during the course of special intensive revision (SIR), across Bihar’s 243 assembly constituencies,” Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer posted on his official X handle.
He later said in a statement only one appeal was filed with regard to the final list.