August 13, 2025
NEW DELHI – Dismissing as “misleading” a report in The New York Times highlighting Opposition political leaders’ allegations of voter list manipulation, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday, once again, rejected the charge.
It rebutted the news report with the headline “Hundreds of Indian Lawmakers Detained at a Protest Claiming Vote Rigging”, and shared a social media post carrying links to videos related to the “Actual truth at field level” of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar.
The ECI also dismissed as “incorrect” statements issued by agitating Opposition leaders over the alleged “voter list manipulation”.
Sharing details of meetings held with political parties before the publication of the draft electoral roll in Bihar, at the time of publication of the draft roll and after the publication of the draft roll, the ECI claimed that it maintained the highest degree of transparency in the exercise.
Observing that pure electoral rolls strengthen democracy, the ECI, which is being attacked by Opposition parties, reissued the actual order of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar.
The ECI’s fact-check was issued on the day after the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, led a united protest march of the INDIA Bloc parties from Parliament to the ECI’s headquarters at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi.
The ECI also circulated its daily bulletin on the SIR, which showed that even after 12 days of the publication of electoral draft rolls, none of the political parties had filed any complaint.
The daily bulletin on SIR in Bihar said the office of the Bihar Chief Electoral Office (CEO) and its team of Electoral Registration Officer (EROs) have disposed of 341 claims and objections received directly from electors for inclusion of names in the draft voter list and exclusion of ineligible voters.
The election office has so far received 13,970 claims and objections from electors concerning Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, said an ECI bulletin.
It said as per the rules, the claims and objections are disposed of by the ERO/AERO concerned after the expiry of 7 days after the verification of eligibility documents.
The ECI said that in Bihar, since August 1, as many as 63,591 new electors, who have turned 18 after the SIR exercise, have filed forms for inclusion in the voter list.