While the BJP has defended the SIR publicly, there is anxiety within. Long-term voters of the party are upset at being asked to prove their citizenship.
The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar may turn out to be an ill-conceived and ill-timed exercise. It could also prove to be counterproductive for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Hearing challenges to the SIR, the Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) questions about the timing of the exercise just before an election, its authority to conduct the SIR, and the validity of the review process. No interim stay on the exercise has been granted. The next hearing will be on July 28 when the draft electoral roll is ready.
What is happening in Bihar is also expected to be repeated in West Bengal, where the BJP wants to come to power in the March 2026 Assembly elections. In both states, the unsaid assumption is that illegal Bangladeshi Muslims have entered the electoral registers in large numbers, helping anti-BJP parties.
The ECI has defended the Bihar exercise as a necessary and constitutionally mandated clean-up of electoral rolls. However, for the first time, already enrolled voters have to prove their eligibility. The 2.93 crore voters who enrolled after 2003, having voted in several elections since then, have to now prove their citizenship. Young voters born after 1987 must also provide parental birth and residence proof, which may be hard to obtain….
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After the truth-shower 