Bihar Adds 1.4 Million Voters to Electoral Rolls Within a Year After SIR Exercise

The electoral roll in Bihar has increased by almost 1.4 million names since the Bihar post-special intensive revision (SIR) was published last September, officials attached with the state electoral officer(CEO) have said.

The electoral roll, which was last updated on October 1 this year, has 75.5 million voters, about 1.4 million more than the 74.1 million voters in the September 2025 roll, which was published after the end of SIR.

During this time, almost 1.87 million persons applied to be on the electoral rolls through Form 6, which is the prescribed application under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, for a person seeking to have his/her name entered on an electoral rolls. Out of these, 1.4 million applications have been successful, the officials quoted above said.

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One of the officers cited above said on Wednesday that the number of enrolment increases during an election year, but drops down during the Lok Sabha, legislative assembly, or panchayat elections.

The three-month SIR exercise in Bihar, which became the first in the country in the current series, initially eliminated 6.56 million people from the voter list of 78.9 million people reported before the exercise, as 2.23 million voters were declared dead, 3.64 million shifted and 0.68 million voters found to have their names at two or more locations.

Following the 1-month vetting process from August 1 to September 1, 2025, during which members of the electorate who were aggrieved submitted claims and objections, the number of electorate in the state increased by 2.15 million and decreased by 0.36 million after the SIR, bringing the total to 74.1 million.

There was no summary revision of the electoral roll till SIR 2025 in Bihar.

A booth officer in Kishanganj's Thakurganj nagar panchayat got some 3,600 applications in a year and forwarded the names of about 636 persons after verifying them. The BLO is also reviewing seven entries submitted through the mobile application, that have been flagged as potential duplicate entries by the EC's Demographic Similar Entry (DSE) software that identifies entries with similar name and fathers' names and age.

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The BLO, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he would always try to validate the voters' documents before passing the name on to the ERO who would then do a thorough check before accepting the name.

About 24 applications have been received at the blind school, Kadamkuan, by BLO Siddheshwar Kumar Sharma, a government schoolteacher, during the previous year.

The development follows a day ago ECI made a statement to the state election authorities that there is no need for citizens who wish to be enrolled to submit a separate declaration, asking for information about their parents' linkage with the previous SIR, in addition to Form 6.

A communication from the office of Bihar Chief Election Officer has also directed the Bihar CEO's office to lead a drive to identify and enrol the first time and lost voters.

The second officer quoted above said that the video conferencing with EROs, district magistrates and training and orientation of officials were underway and the campaign would commence this week itself.

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