Bihar Bandh over voter list update is Rahul Gandhi’s plan to disrupt Monsoon Session of Parliament: Opposition has been doing it for years, and with ‘Foreign spark’ that PM Modi mentioned earlier
Ahead of the assembly elections in Bihar and the monsoon session of Parliament, the opposition parties have unleashed their usual playbook. Outrage over a non-issue, amplify the noise and drama as a larger ‘democratic’ cause, use it to disrupt the functioning of Parliament and then peddle ‘Democracy khatre mein hai’ bogey.
In this vein, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, along with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, on 9th July 2025, led the ‘Bihar Bandh’ protest in Patna against the Election Commission of India’s decision to undertake the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
Several senior leaders of the INDI Alliance, including CPI General Secretary D Raja, CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram, Kanhaiya Kumar, and Sanjay Yadav, also participated in the protest.
As part of the protest, Congress workers blocked the railway track at Sachiwalay Halt station, demanding a rollback of the ECI’s move.
Speaking to reporters, NSUI national in-charge Kanhaiya Kumar said, “We are on the streets to protect democracy because it is said that if streets become silent, the parliament goes astray (Agar sadke suni ho jaayen to sansad awaara ho jati hai.”
Additionally, Sanjay Yadav, firing shots at ECI, said that the electoral rolls revision is “completely non-transparent and misleading.”
“Electoral rolls revision in Bihar by the Election Commission is completely non-transparent and misleading. This is a ploy to snatch the right of people to vote. We are asking questions to the Election Commission, but answers will come from the BJP. It shows the Election Commission has become a unit of the BJP,” he said.
Roads are being blocked with burning tyres by local leaders in areas like Sonpur and Hajipur. In Jehanabad, the student wing of the RJD has even blocked railway tracks.
What is Special Intensive Review, and why is the Election Commission undertaking it in Bihar?
To conduct free and fair elections, enhance transparency, and eliminate ineligible entries from the voter list, the Election Commission has decided to initiate a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections. The SIR is being implemented as an urgent corrective measure to rectify the electoral rolls.
Notably, the last comprehensive SIR in Bihar was conducted in 2003. Contrary to the ‘votebandi’ assertions by the opposition, the SIR is being carried out to address issues like rapid urbanisation, unreported deaths, new voters, the potential inclusion of ineligible foreign nationals, particularly, Rohingya and Bangladeshi infiltrators. These are standard administrative rationales for electoral roll revisions; it does not mean that the ECI is acting with partisan malice.
The SIR is not a de novo exercise, scrapping the entire voter list as claimed by the opposition parties and their supportive ecosystem. In fact, it is but a revision to verify and update existing rolls. While the opposition is projecting the special review as some sort of deliberate exclusionary purge being carried out in haste ahead of the elections, it is a robust process involving booth-level officers conducting door-to-door verification, assisting voters with form submissions, and taking live photographs to ensure transparency.
Explaining the rationale behind conducting the SIR, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has said, “Not a single political party is satisfied with the current status of electoral rolls for different reasons. During the past four months, all 4,123 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), 775 District Election Officers (DEOs), and 36 Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) have conducted nearly 5,000 meetings with 28,000 political party representatives. The ECI has also invited all recognised political parties for interaction. No one was satisfied with the current status of the electoral rolls for one reason or another.”
The Election Commission started the verification process on 25 June 2025 and it will continue till 26th July. After the exercise is over, a revised and correct voter list will be published on 30th September. As part of the verification process, Booth Level Officers (BLO) are visiting all houses across the constituencies. They carry the forms, which they hand over to the people and ask people to fill in their details, such as names, addresses and attach some documents. These documents are needed to ensure that the person is eligible to vote.
If a voter’s name is on the voter list of 2003 (when the verification process was last carried out in Bihar), then he or she just has to confirm his/her information. If their parents’ names are on the list, then no additional documents are needed. However, if their parents’ names are not on the old list, then they need to provide some documents, like a birth certificate or any other relevant document.
The ECI has listed 11 admissible documents: Any Identity card/pension Payment Order issued to regular employee/ pensioner of any Central Govt/State Govt/PSU, Any Identity Card/Certificate/Document issued in India by Government/Local Authorities/Banks/ Post Office/LIC/PSU prior to 01.07.1987, Birth Certificate issued by the competent authority, passport, matriculation/ education certificate issued by recognised boards, Permanent Residence certificate issued by competent State Authority, Caste certificate, Forest Right Certificate, NRC (not applicable in Bihar), Family Register, prepared by State/Local authorities, any land/house allotment certificate by government.
While these are the listed admissible documents, the enumeration form has fields wherein the voters can fill in their Aadhaar number and Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number as well.
The ECI has also said that voters can challenge the ERO’s decision and also submit documents during the claims and objections period, further mitigating risks of arbitrary deletions.
Notably, over 87 per cent of Enumeration Forms, that is 6,86,17,932 forms out of 7,89,69,844 forms have been distributed to voters as of last week. The said number of voters are the ones who have been enrolled as on June 24, 2025.
According to ECI, the Special Intensive Revision in Bihar is progressing well, with 3,70,77,077 Enumeration Forms, which is 46.95 per cent of the total of 7,89,69,844 (nearly 7.90 crore) electors in Bihar, were collected (at 6:00 PM) in the first 14 days since the issuance of SIR instructions on June 24.
Tejashwi Yadav gets fact-checked by ECI, his own party workers are cooperating for SIR
Interestingly, while RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav is outraged over SIR, his own party workers are cooperating with the process, and over 47,000 booth-level agents of RJD are working for SIR. This, however, is not surprising since this has been the modus operandi of the anti-BJP parties for years. They claim that the Election Commission is compromised, the entire electoral process is rigged, and yet they participate in the elections and accept the results declared by the same ECI when they win and cry hoarse when they lose.
However, the question here arises that if the opposition is against the SIR, why is it cooperating in the exercise? If RJD, Congress and other opposition parties in Bihar are have deployed their workers to cooperate with ECI in conducting the Special Intensive Revision, why are they protesting and staging a ‘Bihar Bandh’? One cannot support and oppose a process at the same time, until its all but pretence. The answer to this lies in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi once said about how the opposition behaves ahead of any parliament session.
Opposition using ‘foreign spark’ to disrupt parliament sessions since 2014: PM Modi said this year
Addressing the media ahead of the beginning of the budget session of the Parliament in January 2025, Prime Minister Modi stated that this is perhaps the first parliament session since 2014 when no ‘foreign spark’ came and was used by the Opposition and vested interest groups to spread chaos and mayhem just before the parliament session.
“You must have noticed, since 2014, this is the first Parliament session which saw no ‘videshi chingari’ (foreign interference) in our affairs, in which no foreign forces tried to ignite a fire. I had noticed this before every budget session. And many in our country leave no stone unturned to fan these sparks”, PM Modi said.
Before the Parliament session, the Opposition invents a baseless non-issue to create chaos
For years, the Opposition and their media allies have been using hollow rhetoric and irrelevant issues to create noise and mayhem before almost every parliament session. From the Rafale hoax and Adani-Hindenburg issue to baseless allegations of Pegasus snooping, the Opposition has picked up irrelevant and empty claims to disrupt the parliament. Almost all these issues have had nothing to do with the public’s welfare and have no factual basis to stand a fair probe or legal scrutiny. The opposition bloc has constantly been using dubious ‘reports’ published by controversial organisations, mostly backed by regime change specialist and known Modi detractor George Soros, to target the Modi government and disrupt the functioning of the parliament.
Ahead of the budget session in 2023, the Congress-led opposition used the hit job published by Hindenburg Research, a now-shut-down US-based short-selling firm, accusing the Adani Group of fraud and stock price manipulation. The report came days ahead of the 2023 Budget Session of the Parliament, which began on 31st January. While the Adani Group trashed the report, Opposition disrupted the parliamentary proceedings and brought an Adjournment motion. They created a ruckus throughout the session, demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Adani-Hindenburg controversy, impeding the normal legislative functioning of the Parliament.
Opposition’s mindless attacks on the Adani Group and their sinister attempts at establishing the narrative that somehow PM Modi and the central government were complicit in crony capitalism, corruption and whatnot fell flat after the Supreme Court refused to order an SIT probe on the allegations made by short-selling firm against the Adani Group saying that third-party reports, without any verification, cannot be relied on as proof.
Not to forget the ruckus created by the opposition over an already debunked Pegasus snooping story. The opposition kept flogging the dead horse to mar Parliamentary functioning. Unsurprisingly, the origin of this conspiracy theory was foreign too. The Leftist propaganda portal and its partners were fed the information by two very dubious organisations – one was Amnesty International, and the other was Forbidden Stories.
While Rahul Gandhi claimed that his phone was being tapped and that Pegasus software was being used to snoop on opposition leaders, the Supreme Court on 25th August 2022, said that no conclusive proof had emerged to support the claim that the Indian govt was using the Pegasus spyware to snoop on people.
In January 2023, just days ahead of the 2023 Budget session, the BBC released a propaganda documentary about PM Modi’s role during the 2002 Gujarat riots, citing claims that were already termed as lies by courts in India, including the Supreme Court of India. The opposition created a ruckus and disrupted Parliament proceedings while raising the issue of the government banning the BBC documentary on PM Modi. While the Supreme Court refused to lift the ban on this propaganda documentary, the opposition parties and their ecosystem screened the propaganda spun by a foreign entity even as it challenged the sovereignty of Indian courts.
Similarly, in September 2023, some iPhone-using Opposition leaders claimed that they received mysterious “threat alerts” from Apple. “ALERT: State-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone,” the threat notification sent on iMessage and Apple Mail read. They dubbed it as Pegasus 2.0 to blame the ruling BJP for trying a ‘cyber attack’ on their Apple devices, including iPhones. However, the ecosystem failed to drag the issue when things started to unravel, and the issue died a premature death before the 2023 Winter Session could begin on 4th December as Apple issued a clarification refuting the opposition’s “state-sponsored threats” claim. Amusingly, the security threat messages were from a dubious Soros-linked foreign NGO named Access Now.
Interestingly, what set the disgraceful precedent for the opposition’s manufactured outrage triggered by lies, conspiracy theories, and propaganda peddled by foreign sources was the anti-Rafale agitation ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While the Modi government signed a deal with the French government to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets to improve IAF’s aviation capabilities and have a competitive advantage over Pakistan in the US-made F-16 fighter jet market, the Congress party used former French President Francois Hollande’s statement wherein he claimed that Dassault Aviation had been allegedly forced by the Modi government to collaborate with Reliance Defence of India to comply with its “offset policy”, to attack PM Modi.
The Congress party then accused Prime Minister Modi of prioritising an Indian company and even engaging in crony capitalism by supporting Anil Ambani’s company. On the other hand, the BJP consistently refuted these claims, asserting that the government entered into the agreement to fulfil the combat needs of the Indian Air Force and played no part in selecting the local partner of the French manufacturer.
Rahul Gandhi even called the Rafale deal a scam during the 2019 general elections and coined the slogan ‘Chowkidar chor hai’, which spectacularly backfired as the BJP-led NDA registered a thumping victory. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for misusing its name and disseminating falsehoods purely for political smear tactics aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The matter was even dragged to the top court by Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC/TMC) leader Yashwant Sinha and others, alleging that the Rafale Fighter Jet Deal had significant procedural flaws. The bench, however, rejected the appeal for a court-monitored investigation on 14th December 2018 and noted that there were no anomalies in the price, decision-making procedure or choice of off-set partner.
The opposition used the warp and weft of lies and propaganda concocted by the foreign and Indian leftist media groups for its political gains. Not to forget, the opposition created a ruckus demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Rafale deal signed by the Modi government. The opposition hampered the functioning of the Parliamentary sessions in 2021 with the dubious media organisation fanning falsehoods within a fortnight’s gap with that year’s Parliamentary sessions.
Interestingly, the NGO that filed a complaint against the Rafale Deal was partnered with anti-Modi regime change specialist and philanthropist George Soros’ Open Society, Misereor, and Oxfam, among others.
However, Congress’s reliance on ‘foreign spark’ is not surprising given the party’s prince Rahul Gandhi has for many years been seeking direct foreign intervention in India’s internal affairs during his foreign visits and also has a record of mollycoddling with China.
George Soros-backed NGO ADR files plea against SIR: Again, Rahul Gandhi’s political interests are aligned with foreign organisations
Unsurprisingly, a George Soros-backed so-called electoral reform NGO, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), has filed a plea before the Supreme Court calling the ECI’s order regarding SIR ‘arbitrary’ and claiming that “millions of voters could be deprived of their right to vote”. Not to forget, this entity, funded by Omidyar and Ford Foundation, has been involved in peddling lies about the Rafale deal, electoral bonds and casting aspersions on the integrity of the Election Commission. Under the pretext of pushing for electoral reforms and advocating for democratic values, such foreign-funded outfits are operating as tools of foreign interference in India’s socio-political affairs.
Meanwhile, Icchadhari protestor Yogendra Yadav has also moved a similar plea in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Special Intensive Revision in Bihar.
Interestingly, another Soros-funded research-cum-propaganda machinery, The Reporters Collective, has also jumped on the bandwagon to paint the SIR exercise in Bihar as some sort of deliberate exclusionary purge intended to weed out anti-BJP voters, especially Muslims.
Their chagrin is that the ECI is conducting SIR even as the Special Summary Revision report of the review undertaken by ECI last year came out in January 2025. Reporters Collective finds it suspicious that the ECI is conducting SIR ahead of elections, even as the last SIR was conducted in 2003. By TRC’s logic, if the SIR was not conducted over the years after 2003, it should never be carried out.
Also, SSR is not as detailed and comprehensive as SIR. SSR is an annual process to update electoral rolls by adding new eligible voters, deleting ineligibles and correcting entries. It relies on existing rolls and minimal verification, conducted summarily. In contrast, SIR is a comprehensive and infrequent exercise for a detailed house-to-house verification, fresh enrollment, and stringent documentation to eliminate duplicates and fake voters to ensure a clean electoral roll comprising only genuine voters.
The immediate need to conduct SIR arose as all the political parties in Bihar were not satisfied with the current status of the electoral rolls for various reasons. In the past four months, all 4,123 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), 775 District Election Officers (DEOs), and 36 Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) conducted nearly 5,000 meetings with 28,000 political party representatives. The ECI has also invited all recognised political parties for interaction, and none of them were satisfied with the current status of the electoral rolls.
Much like the opposition parties and their media allies, the Reporters’ Collective also fearmongered that stringent documentation requirements and tight timelines are ECI’s measure to disenfranchise marginalised groups; however, the ECI has already addressed this by allowing submission of enumeration forms without immediate documents.
The ECI has allowed the voters to submit their documents (from the list of 11 admissible documents) later and even dispute the rejection of the enumeration form during the claims and objections period. The commission is also providing field support to assist voters, to ensure that a routine exercise in no way becomes a rushed or exclusionary process. While the TRC cries ‘chaos’, with around 46.95% of enumeration forms collected in the first 14 days, the exercise is going on smoothly.
The opposition parties and their extended media ecosystem have a penchant for picking up a baseless issue to create noise before every single parliament session to disrupt the functioning of democracy and then cry how democracy is under threat. Now the opposition parties are using yet another non-issue to cause ruckus in Bihar, derail the SIR, chase political clout and, most importantly, disrupt the entire monsoon session of the parliament.
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