Dead, shifted, registered twice: 35L face removal from Bihar rolls

As many as 12.55 lakh (1.59 per cent) registered voters have died in Bihar; 17.37 lakh have permanently moved out of the state (2.2 per cent); while another 5.76 lakh have been found to have duplicate enrolments (0.73 per cent).

The abovementioned figures have been eleased by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Taken together, these findings indicate that approximately 35.5 lakh existing voters will be removed from Bihar’s voter list. This amounts to more than 4.5 per cent of the total electorate, a significant shake-up ahead of this and future elections.

Till July 14, after two rounds of door-to-door visits by the BLOs, of the 7,89,69,844 electors in Bihar, enumeration forms of 6,60,67,208 or 83.66 per cent have been collected. So far 1.59 per cent electors have been found deceased, 2.2 per cent permanently shifted and 0.73 per cent persons were found to be enrolled at more than one place. Therefore, 88.18 per cent of electors have either already submitted their forms or died or retained their names at one place or permanently shifted out of their previous place of residence.

Only 11.82 per cent of electors now remain to submit their filled forms and many of them have sought time, a statement issued by ECI on July 14 had said. Meanwhile on Tuesday, the poll body said for the electors who might have temporarily migrated out of the state, focused efforts through newspaper advertisements and direct contact with such electors, are being made to ensure that they are able to fill their enumeration forms well in time and have their names also included in the draft electoral roll to be published on August 1, 2025.

Such electors can easily fill up forms online using their mobile phones through the ECINet App or through the online form on https://voters.eci.gov.in. They can also send their forms to the concerned BLOs through their family members or through any online means, including WhatsApp or a similar application. Earlier the ECI had also revealed that during field visits nationals from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar were found registered as voters.

India