EC has no courage to tell how many non-citizens were removed from Bihar voter list: Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi [India], October 7 (ANI): Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday criticised the Election Commission (EC) for not having the "courage and integrity" to tell the country on how many foreigners were actually removed from the Bihar voter list, despite stressing on the need to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for cleaning the voter list.
"If the EC had told about the alleged non-citizens being removed from voter list, it would have been "even more exposed than it already is", the Congress leader said.
"Much was made of the need of the SIR exercise to remove non-citizens from the electoral roll. The EC has not had the integrity or the courage to enlighten the country on how many such non-citizens in Bihar were removed from the electoral roll. If it had done so, it would have been even more exposed than it already is", Congress' General Secretary in-charge Communications said in a post on X.
The Congress leader further shared an article written by Yogendra Yadav in an English daily, which criticised the Bihar SIR too.
"This fine analysis shows that the entire SIR exercise bulldozed through by the Election Commission has failed on all three counts of completeness, equity, and accuracy", he said while praising the article.
The Congress leader's remarks are made as the Supreme Court is likely to hear the petitions regarding the SIR today. Earlier on September 8 the top court had directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to permit the use of Aadhaar card as a 12th document for the proof of identity for the inclusion of a voter to the revised voters' list.
The poll body has published the final voter list of the state following the completion of the SIR, saying that the voter list has been "purified" after 22 years, when the last SIR was conducted. The EC has also decided to conduct the SIR across the country.
The total number of electors in the final list stands at 7.42 crore, while there were 7.89 crore electors as of June 24 this year. An Election Commission press release stated that 65 lakh voters were removed from the draft list, and the number of electors in the draft list as of August 1, 2025, stood at 7.24 crore.
Meanwhile, the dates for conducting the Bihar Assembly elections have been announced too. The election will take place in two phases, on November 6 and 11, with counting set to take place on November 14.
In the 2015 election, RJD won 80 seats woth 18.8 % vote share while its ally the Congress won 27 seats with a vote share of 6.8%. The JDU which at the time was also part of the Mahagathbandhan won 71 seats with a vote share of 17.3 %. The BJP won 53 seats with a vote share of 25%, while other parties won 8 seats with a share of 22.5%. (ANI)