'Why No Complaint...?' BJP Tears Into Rahul Gandhi As EC Releases Final Bihar Voter List

Last Updated:October 01, 2025, 10:34 IST

A total of 48 lakh ineligible voters have been removed from the final electoral roll, while 21 lakh eligible voters were added to the list, the poll body said on Tuesday

The party accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading propaganda. (Photo: X/RahulGandhi)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday questioned the lack of an official complaint by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his party against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar—an exercise the Grand Old Party has termed “biased" and an attempt to rig votes.

Taking a dig at Gandhi for his “Spit & Run" politics after the completion of the exercise in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections, BJP’s national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said spreading propaganda had become the Congress leader’s SOP. “SIR exercise completed in Bihar with deletion of 68.6 Lac names due to death, migration & duplication!

>No official complaint by Congress in prescribed format during the exercise

>No affidavit on oath by Rahul Gandhi regarding his “allegations"

Spit & Run, Spread Propaganda has become Rahul Gandhi’s SOP"

Gandhi has been at the forefront of the Congress’ ‘Vote Chori’ campaign and the party alleges that the Election Commission (EC) and BJP are colluding in the rigging of electoral rolls, or at least the ECI is not doing enough to prevent or correct it.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission published the final voters’ list for the Bihar assembly elections. According to data available, a total of 48 lakh ineligible voters have been removed from the final electoral roll, while 21 lakh eligible voters were added to the list. A total of 7.41 crore voters are now eligible to cast their ballot in the upcoming assembly elections. The final voter list comes after the conclusion of SIR, which was held after a gap of 22 years.

What has the Congress alleged?

The Congress claims that the process will disenfranchise crores of genuine citizens. On August 7, Gandhi, taking the example of some Lok Sabha constituencies, claimed before the media that an analysis of the voter data showed that the Election Commission had rigged polls at the BJP’s behest to help the party win the seat in the 2024 general elections.

The Gandhi scion held symbolic protests, including having “tea with dead voters", mocking the poll body for marking living people as dead on its rolls. Along with INDIA bloc leaders, Gandhi also embarked on a ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’.

At the heart of the Congress and opposition protest is the argument that the SIR exercise was not a genuine clean-up of rolls but a process weaponised for electoral gains. The party alleges that the move will disenfranchise real voters, especially Dalits, OBCs, minorities, and migrant workers, who are less likely to have the specific documents establishing proof of citizenship.

Last week, Gandhi said “mini-hydrogen, hydrogen, uranium and plutonium bombs" are being readied for further exposing ‘Vote Chori’ in Bihar.

What the Election Commission said

The poll body has not taken kindly to Gandhi’s remarks over ‘Vote Chori’ in Maharashtra as well as attempts at rigging electoral rolls in Bihar.

With regards to Maharashtra, in a point-by-point rebuttal, the EC explained the processes involved in voter turnout data collection, electoral roll updates, and the transparency of electoral procedures, terming the Congress’ allegations as baseless.

The Election Commission also refuted Gandhi’s fresh allegations that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, asserting that no wrongful deletions had taken place.

The poll body has also rejected Gandhi’s claims of ‘software driven voter deletion’, clarifying that contrary to the claims by the Congress leader, nobody can delete any vote online.

On the issue of Bihar polls, the commission said none of the political parties, including the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led opposition, had filed any objection or complaints over the draft electoral rolls published for Bihar on August 1.

The data exposed the hypocrisy of the Congress, which had accused the poll watchdog of manipulation on social media but did not back up its claims at the appropriate forum.

The EC had said that if Gandhi believes his allegations against the poll body are true, he should sign the declaration required by the commission. However, if he refuses to sign the declaration, it would mean he does not believe in his own allegations and should hence apologise to the nation.

However, Congress leader Pawan Khera alleged that the EC dismissed all its 89 complaints “submitted pertaining to irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)", which the party’s Booth Level Agents (BLAs) raised.

“The EC keeps getting news planted through its sources that no complaints are coming from any political party. The truth is that the Congress submitted 89 lakh complaints pertaining to irregularities in the SIR to the EC. When our BLAs went to file complaints, their complaints were turned down by the EC. The EC categorically told our BLAs that complaints could be accepted by individuals only, not by political parties."

However, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar refuted the charges, stating that no BLA authorised by any district president of the Congress in Bihar has submitted any claim or objection on any deleted name.

News elections 'Why No Complaint...?' BJP Tears Into Rahul Gandhi As EC Releases Final Bihar Voter List

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