In a press conference held at the CPIML Liberation Parliamentary Office in New Delhi on July 27, INDIA alliance leaders slammed the Election Commission’s boastful and misleading claims regarding the first phase of the SIR, which concluded on July 26, 2025. CPIML Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya; Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Member of Parliament and Congress leader; Manoj Jha, Member of Parliament and RJD leader, and Nilotpal Basu, Politburo Member, CPI(M), addressing the presser, noted that the SIR is clearly a process carried out for voter suppression and large-scale disenfranchisement of poor and marginalised sections.
CPIML GS Dipankar Bhattacharya said that from the beginning, the ECI had been making false claims regarding the whole SIR process. The ECI had said that they have shared data of those included at the booth level. But, this data doesn't specifically identify all those who are claimed dead, untraceable, and multiple registrations in one package. How does the ECI expect us to decode these data in such a short span of time?
Furthermore, the ECI is saying they did an extensive door-to-door survey, but the reality on the ground is that people are running helter-skelter to find the BLOs. The ECI is spreading complete lies.
A summary revision was done in January 2025, and now in this SIR, the Election Commission is saying so many people have passed away. What I see is a huge gap in numbers in just six months. Does this mean that in just six months, around 22 lakh people have passed away? So, does this mean the ECI’s January 2025 summary revision was a flop? It clearly shows this entire exercise is about exclusion in a completely arbitrary manner.
“The data given by the ECI is impossible to digest. The ECI is yet to manufacture a Hajmola that can digest this votebandi of the poor of Bihar,” added Dipankar Bhattacharya.
Congress leader Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the ECI’s SIR process is completely arbitrary, and everyone is raising the question why it is being carried out just before the Bihar elections. All the recent pressers of the ECI and refusal to accept Aadhaar, EPIC, and Ration Card as valid documents clearly point towards the fact that the entire SIR process is a citizenship verification process. Any citizenship verification and revocation are extensive processes for which there are relevant authorities including Foreigners Tribunals. It has to be presumed that people are citizens, and any process of revocation must go through proper verification, not one that is rushed and completed in just under two months.
It is an irony that everywhere and in every activity Aadhaar is required. Even the Representation of the People Act was recently amended to include Aadhaar details, but now the ECI is saying Aadhaar cannot be included, noted Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
RJD leader and MP Manoj Jha noted that when the new Chief Election Commissioner took charge, he said all the work will include due consultation with political parties. But with such a massive SIR process, we witness that the ECI has completely sidelined the political parties and their concerns. The whole SIR process is based on presumptions. There is no time or option for the right to appeal for people who will be excluded in the whole process. And it is really suspicious that during the SIR, no new voter has been found. Amid all the self-boasting by the ECI about a robust process, there are numerous reports of people found alive who are included in the dead list.
“We have not seen such a large attempt of disenfranchisement in the history of independent India. Clearly, opacity has become the hallmark of ECI functioning,” said Manoj Jha.
CPIM leader Nilotpal Basu said the ECI has claimed that the process of SIR across India is based on an independent study, but what is this study? The ECI has never revealed this, and they are carrying out the whole process in an arbitrary manner. Such a disenfranchisement exercise cannot be accepted. People across the country will fight against these attempts of voter suppression.
Concluding the press conference, CPIML General Secretary noted that when the document verification begins and the draft roll is published, a large number of people will be excluded. The SIR process is clearly linked to the upcoming election when the people of Bihar are ready for a change. People of Bihar are known for their fighting spirit. The poor and marginalised sections of Bihar have fought long for their voting rights and now they will also fight against this votebandi SIR process. In August, Bihar will move into an intensified struggle mode against this exclusionary and disenfranchisement process.
