The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to publish booth-wise details and reasons for deletion of 65 lakh names from Bihar’s voters list during the special intensive revision (SIR).
Tejashwi Yadav called the order a victory for the Constitution and democracy, accusing the BJP and its allies of trying to disenfranchise voters and the ECI of concealment and bias.
INDIA bloc leaders will launch a “Voter Rights Yatra” from August 17 to raise awareness about voter rights and irregularities in Bihar’s electoral rolls.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Leader of Opposition in Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court’s interim order directing the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish details of 65 lakh deleted names from Bihar’s voters list, saying it had “exposed the BJP, its allies, and their nefarious design to disenfranchise people.”
According to PTI, Yadav described the verdict as a victory for the Constitution, democracy, and the united struggle of opposition parties and the people of Bihar. “Our fight will continue, and we will keep an eye on officials involved in the SIR exercise,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi directed the ECI to release booth-wise data on the 65 lakh deleted names, along with reasons for removal, such as death, relocation, or erroneous inclusion in “traceless” categories. The order came while hearing pleas challenging the ECI’s June 24 decision to conduct the SIR in Bihar, reported PTI.
Yadav recalled that opposition parties had raised the matter in Parliament and that the demands they made had now been endorsed by the top court. He alleged that the BJP “has never had faith in democracy or democratic processes” and said the ECI’s conduct showed “dishonesty, fraud, and concealment.”
The RJD leader accused the Commission of remaining silent despite revelations that several NDA leaders, including Bihar Deputy CM Vijay Sinha, NDA MP Veena Devi, JD(U) MLC Dinesh Singh, and the Mayor of Muzaffarpur, possessed multiple voter ID cards. He also claimed Gujarat voters were being registered in Bihar, citing BJP’s Bihar in-charge Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya, who allegedly voted in Gandhinagar in 2024 but is now registered in Patna.
Thanking INDIA bloc leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, Hemant Soren, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, M.K. Stalin, M.A. Baby, and Uddhav Thackeray for opposing the SIR, Yadav said the unity of the people would ensure that “NDA will suffer a humiliating defeat in the upcoming elections.”
He said the “ploy to weaken democracy” was revealed when deceased voters appeared before the Supreme Court during the hearings to prove they were alive. Yadav also accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of “politics of branding people as infiltrators,” noting that the EC’s affidavit “did not mention a single infiltrator.”
The RJD leader alleged that planted media stories and anonymous-source reports were used to malign communities and opposition leaders. “Once the booth-wise list is made public, the full truth will come out,” he said.
Announcing the next step in the opposition’s campaign, Yadav said that from August 17, Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders would launch a “Voter Rights Yatra” from Rohtas to raise awareness about electoral rights and the alleged irregularities in the Bihar voter list, as reported by PTI.
