Patna (Bihar) [India], July 13 : Following the Supreme Court's approval for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls, Mukesh Sahani, leader of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), has called for the resignation of the Union Home Minister and Bihar's Chief Minister.
Sahani's demand comes in the wake of reports alleging the infiltration of foreign nationals, including individuals from Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Nepal, into Bihar's voter list.
The VIP leader criticised the government for its failure to secure the state's borders and protect the integrity of the electoral process ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
Speaking to ANI, Sahani said, "When the Election Commission was doing these things without preparation, questions started raising on them. Then they started saying things like these--that people of Bangladesh, Myanmar, and other countries are saying all these things just to mislead people."
"If these things are true, then the Home Minister of the nation and the state CM should resign. It is the responsibility of the government to protect the border and make sure that no person from another nation resides in Bihar," he added.
Meanwhile, a large number of individuals from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar have been found by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) with Aadhaar cards, domicile certificates and ration cards during house-to-house visits carried out as part of the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, according to sources.
The state will have Assembly polls later in the year. ECI sources said that after a proper enquiry is conducted from 1 Aug to 30 Aug, if found true, such names shall not be included in the final list to be published on 30 September 2025.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) said that till Saturday evening, 80.11 per cent of electors in Bihar submitted their forms, adding that the commission is moving ahead to complete the collection of Enumeration Forms (EFs) before the stipulated time of July 25.
"With 77,895 BLOs, an additional 20,603 newly appointed BLOs on the ground, ECI is moving ahead to complete the collection of Enumeration Forms before the stipulated time of 25th July, 2025. Field-level teams, including 38 District Election Officers (DEOs), Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) across all 243 Assembly Constituencies, and 963 Assistant EROs (AEROs), are being closely monitored by the CEO for this purpose," the ECI said.
These efforts of ECI are being supplemented by 1.5 lakh BLAs appointed by all political parties who are also visiting door to door, leaving no stone unturned to ensure inclusion of every existing elector whose name is in the Electoral Roll in Bihar as on 24 June, 2025. Special efforts are also being made to assist senior citizens, PwD electors, and other vulnerable groups by over our lakh volunteers.
"Having completed 100 per cent printing and near completion of distribution of EFs to all electors who were found at their addresses, as of 6 pm today, collection crossed 6,32,59,496 or 80.11 per cent. This means that four out of every five electors in Bihar have submitted the EF. With this pace, the majority of EFs are likely to be collected much before 25th July, 2025," ECI said.
To be included in the draft electoral rolls to be published on 1st August, electors must submit their EFS, preferably along with their eligibility documents.
Suppose any elector requires additional time to submit their eligibility documents. In that case, they can do so separately until 30 August, the last date for filing claims and objections, and may also seek assistance from volunteers.
Achieving yet another milestone, BLOs have already digitised and uploaded 4.66 crore Enumeration Forms in ECINet, as on Sunday evening. ECINet is the newly developed integrated software that has subsumed all the different 40 ECI Apps that had existed earlier.