What the ‘neutral clean-up’ of Bihar’s poll rolls truly means

India’s Shift in Electoral Roll Revision

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) in Bihar has revised the electoral roll, causing a significant shift in citizenship and voting rights.

• Nearly 4.74 crore voters, or 60% of Bihar’s electorate, are now required to prove their eligibility through new documents.

• The revision is aimed at eliminating duplicate entries, removing deceased voters, filtering out ineligible electors, and including newly eligible ones.

• The ECI’s refusal to recognize its own identification document is eroding its institutional credibility and disenfranchising citizens.

• There is concern that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) could be given the authority to refer individuals suspected of being foreign nationals to citizenship authorities.

• The current process in Bihar resembles a National Register of Citizens (NRC) without legislative basis or judicial oversight.

• Estimates suggest that as many as two crore voters could be removed from the rolls if the current process continues unchecked.

• Critics see the revision as a form of demographic manipulation and part of a broader political project aimed at weakening pluralism and undermining the representation and right to vote of certain communities, particularly Muslims.