Bihar: CPI(ML) Warns of Mass Disenfranchisement Over EC Move
CPI (ML) workers meeting. Image credit X.com @cpimlliberation
Party urges Election Commission to drop “logistically absurd” plan ahead of assembly elections
By AMIT KUMAR
NEW DELHI, June 25, 2025 – The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation has raised strong objections to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) move to carry out a “Special Intensive Revision” of the electoral roll in Bihar ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner, CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya called the decision “logistically absurd” and warned it could lead to mass disenfranchisement, particularly among the poor and migrant workers.
According to the party, the ECI plans to conduct house-to-house verification of over 78 million voters within just one month—using the 2003 voter list as the base. Voters added since then will be required to furnish a wide range of identity documents.
“This is dangerously similar to the NRC exercise in Assam,” Bhattacharya wrote, noting that the NRC took six years to complete for a population of just 33 million. “In Bihar, with nearly 80 million electors, the EC expects to finish the task in a single month, during peak monsoon and agricultural season,” added Bhattacharya.
The letter emphasized that millions of voters from Bihar live and work outside the state and may be unable to participate in such a rushed verification process. The CPI(ML) warned that failure to provide documentation on time could lead to arbitrary deletions from the electoral roll, thereby stripping many of their constitutional right to vote.
The party highlighted that the last such intensive revision in Bihar occurred in 2002, when the electorate was around 50 million and no election was imminent. Conducting such a massive revision now, so close to polls, would, the party said, only result in “chaos, inaccuracies, and large-scale exclusions.”
CPI(ML), which has long been involved in movements defending the voting rights of landless and marginalized communities, urged the Election Commission to abandon the special revision plan and continue with the normal process of updating the electoral roll.
Calling for the ECI to protect the spirit of India’s democratic framework, Bhattacharya said, “In the 75th year of the Constitution and the Republic, the people of Bihar must not be denied their fundamental right to vote.”
Bihar Assembly elections are likely to be held in October-November this year. Political parties are currently in the midst of mass outreach ahead of the announcement of the poll dates by the EC.
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