The Election Commission on Sunday clarified that there was “no change in instructions” on the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar.

Earlier in the day, the office of the Bihar chief electoral officer had said that all measures were being taken to facilitate voters to complete their documentation as part of the revision exercise. “These existing voters will have time to submit the documents even after first submitting their Enumeration Forms,” the chief electoral officer had said.

The chief electoral officer had issued public notices in Hindi newspapers on Sunday saying that if voters were unable to submit their documents, they could submit only enumeration forms to block-level officers.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge claimed on X that the Election Commission published the advertisements in response to pressure from the Opposition and civil society. “When faced with public opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party cleverly takes a step back,” he claimed.

In a clarification on Sunday evening, the poll panel said that the revision of voter rolls was being carried out as per an order issued on June 24, and that there had been no change in instructions since then.

“The electors can submit their documents any time before July 25, 2025,” the Election Commission said. “After publication of draft Electoral Rolls, if any document is deficient, [electoral registration officers] can obtain such documents, from the electors whose name appears in the draft Electoral Rolls, during scrutiny in the Claims and Objection period.”

The Election Commission said that till 6 pm on Sunday, it had received the enumeration forms of 1,69,49,408 voters, or 21.46% of the voting population. It added that 7.25% of the forms had been uploaded on the commission’s ECINET app.

No one was satisfied with current voter rolls: EC chief

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday defended the ongoing special intensive revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls, claiming that the exercise had to be carried out as no one was satisfied with the current voter rolls, The Hindu reported.

Kumar said that in the past four months, electoral registration officers, district election officers and all 36 chief electoral officers in the country held nearly 5,000 meetings with 28,000 political party representatives.

“The EC has also invited all recognised political parties for interaction,” he said, according to The Hindu. “No one was satisfied with the current status of electoral rolls for one reason or the other.”

Revision of electoral rolls

The special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar was announced by the Election Commission on June 24, ahead of the Assembly elections expected to be held in the state in October or November.

As part of the exercise, persons whose names were not on the 2003 voter list will need to submit proof of eligibility to vote. This means that 2.9 crore out of the state’s 7.8 crore voters – or about 37% of the electors – will have to submit documentary evidence.

The special intensive revision guidelines issued earlier stated that the voters born before July 1, 1987, must show proof of their date and place of birth, while those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, must also submit documents establishing the date and place of birth of one of their parents. Those born after December 2, 2004, will need proof of date of birth for themselves and both parents.

If the officers are satisfied with the details provided, the voters will be re-enrolled to a new voter list by electoral registration officers. If not, they will be removed from the voter lists.

A draft roll will be published on August 1 and the final roll will be out on September 30.

On Wednesday, eleven INDIA bloc parties told the Election Commission that the exercise risked disenfranchising more than 2.5 crore voters, as they may not be able to produce the necessary documents.

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