Bihar SIR: CPI(ML) survey finds deleted voters alive and at home

• CPI(ML) says its survey found voters whose names were deleted during the SIR living at their registered homes.

• The party estimates that the deletions affected 2,137 voters in Agiaon and 3,489 in Ziradei; both seats won by relatively narrow margins in 2025.

• The findings are based on samples from selected polling booths. The party plans to release a detailed report and hold a public hearing on 1 October.

Amid demands from Opposition leaders, including Tejashwi Yadav and Mamata Banerjee, for elections conducted on the basis of electoral rolls prepared after the special intensive revision (SIR) to be cancelled, the CPI(ML) has released its Bihar Voter Survey 2026 report, raising fresh questions over the impact of the exercise on election results.

The party conducted a door-to-door survey across 10 booths each in the Agiaon and Ziradei Assembly constituencies in May and June 2026. It found that a significant number of voters whose names had been deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR were still living at their listed addresses.

According to the survey, Agiaon Assembly constituency, a reserved seat in the Bhojpur region, has 2.73 lakh electors. During the SIR, 20,551 names were deleted from the electoral roll in the constituency. To verify the SIR deletions, the CPI(ML) surveyed four booths, covering 735 people. Of these, 77, or 10.4 per cent, were found at home. The party estimates that the SIR deletions had an impact equivalent to 2,137 votes across the constituency.

The party also surveyed three booths each to verify pre-SIR deletions and additions. Before the SIR, 5,565 names had been deleted from the electoral roll in Agiaon. Of the 204 voters surveyed across three booths, 46, or 22.5 per cent, were found at home. Similarly, 10,611 voters had been added to the electoral roll in Agiaon before the SIR. Of the 209 voters surveyed across three booths, 29, or 13.9 per cent, could not be found by the survey team.

For these two parameters, the CPI(ML) used electoral rolls from January 2024 to June 2025 as the basis of its survey, while the post-SIR electoral roll was used to verify deletions made during the SIR.

Party leader N. Sai Balaji said the survey was conducted in two phases. "The survey was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, we surveyed people whose names had been deleted from the electoral roll, and in the second phase, we checked whether the names of those voters had subsequently been added back to the electoral roll. The first phase was completed in May-June 2026, while the second phase was conducted in September 2026. We conducted the survey after the SIR process was completed," he said.

In the 2025 Assembly election in Agiaon, BJP candidate Mahesh Paswan defeated CPI(ML) candidate Shiv Prakash Ranjan by just 95 votes. Paswan polled 69,412 votes, while Ranjan secured 69,317. In the 2020 Assembly election, CPI(ML)'s Manoj Manzil won the seat with 63.09 per cent of the vote, defeating JD(U)'s Prabhunath Prasad by 48,550 votes.

The survey findings from Ziradei are similarly striking. A total of 19,067 names were deleted from the electoral roll in the constituency during the SIR. To verify the deletions, the CPI(ML) surveyed 665 voters across four booths and found 122, or 18.3 per cent, at home. The party estimates that the deletions had an impact equivalent to 3,489 votes across the constituency.

In the 2025 Assembly election, CPI(ML) candidate Amarjeet Kushwaha faced JD(U)'s Bhishma Pratap Singh in Ziradei. The JD(U) won the seat by 2,626 votes. In 2020, Kushwaha had won the same seat by a margin of 25,510 votes.

The figures from the pre-SIR deletion and addition survey in Ziradei are also significant. Before the SIR, 3,156 names had been deleted from the electoral roll in the constituency. Of the 189 voters surveyed, 15, or 7.9 per cent, were found at home. The party estimates the constituency-level impact at 249 votes.

Similarly, 8,876 voters had been added to the electoral roll in Ziradei before the SIR. Of the 231 voters surveyed, 48, or 20.8 per cent, could not be found at home. The report estimates the constituency-level impact of these additions at 1,846 votes.

CPI(ML) general-secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the Election Commission's stated objective behind the SIR was to prepare a clean electoral roll, but alleged that the post-SIR roll contained more irregularities.

"The Election Commission's claim regarding the SIR was that it wanted to prepare a clean electoral roll. But there are far more irregularities in the electoral roll prepared after the SIR. We found that most of the deletions made during the SIR were incorrect," Bhattacharya said.

The survey report has assumed greater significance after the Election Commission said in a press note on 26 September 2026 that the SIR process had been completed in 20 states and Union Territories, including Bihar and West Bengal. The Commission said anyone whose name had not been included in the electoral roll during the SIR — including first-time voters — could apply to the concerned electoral registration officer (ERO) for inclusion.

It also said district election officers, EROs and chief electoral officers would conduct special campaigns to facilitate such applications.

Questions over the SIR have also intensified following an Indian Express report on alleged differences among election commissioners and the revelation that two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had recorded objections and disagreements on 14 occasions over 10 months.

In a video statement issued on 23 September, former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said, "There is a need to create public awareness. Gyanesh Kumar should be arrested and elections should be held afresh in states where polls have been conducted on the basis of erroneous electoral rolls." Tejashwi Yadav also called for fresh elections in Bihar and West Bengal on the same day.

At a special press conference on 26 September, the CPI(ML) released the survey report covering 10 booths each in only the two Assembly constituencies. Bhattacharya said the party would release a detailed report in Patna on 1 October and hold a public hearing at which voters would be invited to testify. "Based on this, the party will launch a fresh movement in Bihar," he said.