August 8, 2025: On Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah strongly criticized the opposition’s claims about the special rigorous revision of the Bihar voter list. He said they were “looking for an excuse for defeat even before the election.” Shah also made fun of Rahul Gandhi during an election rally, telling him to “open and read” the Constitution, which he argued solely gives citizens the right to vote.
The Election Commission (EC) is currently updating the Bihar voter list in preparation for the 2018 Assembly polls, which is causing a lot of debate. The EC says that the change is meant to get rid of those who shouldn’t be there, like non-nationals, dead people, and people who have more than one entry. The opposition, on the other hand, has a different opinion.
Shah said in defense of the EC’s actions, “They are against this SIR because infiltrators are their vote bank.” He said that the BJP-led alliance would win big and that the Mahagathbandhan, led by Tejashwi Yadav, was not paying enough attention to the state’s growth.
The Congress and the RJD, among other opposition parties, have accused the EC of working for the BJP to take away the voting rights of marginalized and underprivileged groups who usually vote against the ruling party. They are also worried about when the revision would happen and the EC’s first decision to not accept routinely used IDs like Aadhaar for re-verification.
The Supreme Court is currently looking into the case. It has told the EC to make sure there is an appropriate appeals mechanism and to accept Aadhaar and at least three other government-issued IDs. The EC says that the exercise has already gotten rid of 65 lakh names, which it says were people who had died, migrated, or were discovered to be non-nationals.