7.2cr voters in post-SIR Bihar draft roll, against 7.9cr before | India News
New Delhi: The draft roll for Bihar published by the Election Commission on Friday includes 7.24 crore electors who submitted their enumeration forms within the July 25 deadline. Bihar’s electorate, as per the draft roll, is over 65.6 lakh less than its 7.9 crore strength on June 24, 2025, ahead of the onset of the special intensive revision.This figure of 65.6 lakh, made public by EC on July 27 after conclusion of the first phase of SIR, includes 22 lakh dead electors, 36 lakh permanently shifted or absent/untraceable, 7 lakh voters enrolled at more than one place and electors who did not submit their enumeration forms.As many as 15 districts have recorded a higher than state average, though not alarming, percentage of exclusions from the draft roll. These include Gopalganj (15.1%), Purnea (12.1%), Kishanganj (11.8%), Madhubani (10.4%) and Bhagalpur (10.2%). Kishanganj and Purnea are districts with allegedly high concentration of illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Kishanganj is also the only Muslim majority district in Bihar, while Purnia has over 38.4% Muslims.Interestingly, Araria and Katihar – where Muslims’ share in the population is 43-44% and which also allegedly have Bangladeshi immigrant settlers – have recorded exclusions (7.6% and 8.2%) short of the state average of 8.3%.EC said any elector or party can now file claims and objections with ERO till Sept 1, seeking addition of wrongfully excluded electors or deletions of ineligible ones. From Saturday, EC will release a daily update on claims and objections.
