EXCLUSIVE: Interview with a dead citizen, Mintu Paswan of Bihar (and 3 more)

“When I came to know that I was dead in the ECI’s records, I was shocked. Not because I fear death, but because I imagined I would be cut off from all welfare schemes,” says 41-year-old Mintu Paswan, a Dalit driver from Bihar’s Arrah district. 

His name was deleted from the draft electoral rolls prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the first phase of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

Paswan’s ordeal is not an isolated case. He was one of four people brought to the Supreme Court yesterday, 12 August. Another woman from Paswan’s area was allowed entry alongside him. Others were asked to remain outside the court.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi earlier today, 13 August, met with another seven ‘dead’ men and women from Radhopur, the constituency RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav hails from.

And these stunning happenstances all go to justify the deep unease that has been spreading across Bihar since the SIR began.

The issue goes far beyond the ‘right to vote’ at this point. For Bihar’s welfare-dependent rural population, being struck off the rolls can mean losing access to government benefits, food rations, pensions and other rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Ironically, Paswan’s did have his name in the ECI’s voter list as recently as January 2025. But in the new draft list, it is missing.

When he with the help of the CPI(ML) activists approached the district administration for clarification, he discovered the bizarre reason — he had been marked “dead”.

“What troubles me most is that neither the booth-level officer (BLO) nor anyone from the local administration ever came to verify. Then who declared me dead and why?” he asks.

The blow didn’t end there. Paswan’s brother’s name is also missing from the draft rolls — though he hasn’t been labelled dead; just... erased.

Paswan is one among 65 lakh people whose names, according to the ECI, have been deleted from the electoral rolls.

But some of them are clearly very much alive. Trouble is, they have been identified almost by accident, the few found — the exact number of ‘living casualties’ cannot be ascertained at this stage, with the ECI refusing to share a sorted list or explain the reason behind each strike.

On 12 August, as Paswan appeared — with three others — before the Supreme Court during a special hearing, activist and petitioner Yogendra Yadav argued that the SIR is being used to deliberately disenfranchise voters.

So, despite submitting all required documents, Paswan’s name remains absent from the draft rolls. For him, this is a textbook example of vote chori — vote theft — executed not through booth capturing, but through administrative erasure.

Several people marked ‘dead’ in official records, but in truth quite alive, are now making the long journey to Delhi, hoping to testify before the apex court — and find themselves restored to the government’s good graces hopefully. Such as the seven who ended up taking tea with Rahul Gandhi.

“There have been many interesting experiences in life, but I never got the chance to have tea with 'dead people'. For this unique experience, thank you Election Commission!” posted the LoP.

The Congress sent out a press release titled: ‘Seven voters in Bihar, all very much alive, shared tea with Rahul Gandhi today — even as the Election Commission’s SIR list them as “dead””

“Ramikbal Ray, Harendra Ray, Lalmuni Devi, Vachiya Devi, Lalwati Devi, Punam Kumari, and Munna Kumar all belong to Tejashwi Yadav’s constituency, Raghopur. They have been removed from the electoral rolls despite having completed the requisite paperwork for the SIR. The Election Commission has not openly published lists of the people who it has declared dead, migrated, etc. These 7 represent only a fraction of unjustly deleted voters in 2-3 polling booths in the constituency. This is not a clerical error — it is political disenfranchisement in plain sight,” reads a statement issued by Congress.

Indeed, dozens from Raghopur, Arrah and Vaishali have come to the capital.

CPI(M-L) MLA from Arrah Shiv Prakash says the problem is even bigger than the list of the ‘dead’ might suggest. “The number of people marked ‘untraceable’ is higher than those declared dead. Many of them are alive, but are now running from pillar to post to prove their identity. The ECI has just stamped them as ‘not traceable’ without proper verification,” he alleges.

Paswan and others have now submitted sworn affidavits affirming they are alive. He hopes the Supreme Court will restore his voting rights — but he fears that the SIR’s silent victims are mostly the poor and marginalised, people with neither political clout nor legal resources to follow in his footsteps.

The controversy around the SIR has been building for months.

In early August, while hearing petitions against the SIR, the Supreme Court told senior advocate and former Union minister Kapil Sibal: “Produce 15 living persons who have been shown as dead under the SIR, and we will declare the SIR illegal.”

Now, with the INDIA bloc producing multiple such cases, the question before the court is sharper than ever: Will it uphold the ECI’s draft list — or strike down the SIR as unconstitutional?

While we wait, read an edited excerpt of National Herald’s exclusive interview with Mintu Paswan (or watch on YouTube, linked below):

But like we said, Mintu Paswan wasn't the only one... More exclusives at the link below, because apparently we keep seeing ‘dead people’ these days.