Patna, 9 July 2025:
On Wednesday the INDIA bloc and the opposition parties in the state virtually crippled vast areas of the state in a high drama protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll overlooked by the Election Commission. In the so called chakka jam major roads were blocked with burning tyres, and rail transport in all parts of the state was jammed because of protests.
The bandh was part of a strike in the whole country which also saw the participation of more than 25 crore workers, spearheaded in Bihar by Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav, as well as by their parties the Congress and RJD, opposite to left allies, VIP, and Pappu Yadav. They also accuse the SIR of having a political agenda and wary is that the SIR has a potential of disenfranchising this country of millions of voters most of the migrants and economically disadvantaged people.
Protestors were reported to be blocking highways with burning tyres, in Sonpur and Hajipur, and RJD student activists blocking movement of trains, in Jehanabad by staging a sit in on railway tracks. The rally also reached the Patna where Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav took out a march after reaching Income Tax Golambar to the State Election Commission office.
Leaders of opposition highlighted the brutal demands of the SIR, which implies providing documentation including birth certificates of voters and their parents to the electorates still not registered in the 2003 lists. Accusing the government of disenfranchising at least two crore voters whose composition was mainly SC, ST, migrant and poor, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, on behalf of the India bloc, said this would render their disenfranchisement as the greatest assault on the basic structure of the Constitution.
In the meantime, however, Farooq Abdullah termed the revision action as being unconstitutional and threatened country wide agitation, and h termed it being not acceptable to the people in Hindustan qarip Historical Background, 1996-2006.
Coinciding with this local protest is the Bharat Bandh, a demonstration against perceived risks to democratic rights that have been growing. The INDIA is the block that has also expressed interest in legal action against the Commission in case the latter moves on even without making adjustments.
The Election Commission shot back by clarifying that SIR is being undertaken under Article 326 of the Constitution and under the Representation of the People Act and it is being done to make sure that only the eligible citizens find their names on the electoral roll.
As assembly elections drawing closer towards the end of the year, voter roll revision controversy is soon turning into a popular political movement of mass proportions. With the increasingly shrill protests and legal wrangles awaiting to unfold, the faceoff between the conflicting parties of democratic representation in Bihar seems to continue to grow.
