Eleven opposition parties led by the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Tuesday strongly objected to the Election Commission of India’s decision to carry out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, citing inadequate time before the upcoming state assembly polls.

An 18-member delegation of INDIA bloc parties met ECI officials in New Delhi and raised concerns over both the timing and the manner of the revision process. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, accompanied by leaders including RJD’s Manoj Jha, CPI(ML)’s Dipankar Bhattacharya and Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar, warned that the move could severely impact the level playing field just months ahead of the elections.

Singhvi questioned the rationale behind announcing the revision as late as June, pointing out that previous SIR exercises had been conducted well ahead of elections. “When SIR was carried out in 2003, the next general election was a year away and the assembly polls two years later. Now we are just a few months away from elections, and the task of verifying nearly 7.75 crore voters in such a short span is unreasonable,” he said.

The leaders also criticised the EC’s recent restriction limiting the number of representatives who can attend meetings with the Commission. Singhvi said several senior leaders, including Congress’s Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera, were made to wait outside as only two members per party were allowed inside, including the party president. He said such restrictions undermine the democratic consultation process.

In a post on X, Jairam Ramesh said, “The Election Commission was literally compelled to meet the delegation after having refused to do so. A few of us could not meet the ECI, which unilaterally imposed a limit of two representatives per party. I myself had to hang around in the waiting room for almost two hours.”

Jairam Ramesh further wrote that over the last six months, the ECI had “conducted itself in a manner which undermines the very basis of our democratic system,” and called the restrictions on party delegations “arbitrary and confused.” He said the Commission introduced these changes under the pretext of being a “New Commission”, and questioned its motives. “We shudder to think what this ‘New’ Commission’s gameplan is,” he said.

He compared the Commission’s decision to the 2016 demonetisation, stating, “After the PM’s notebandi destroyed our economy, ECI’s ‘VOTE-bandi’ in Bihar will destroy our democracy.”

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