Even as the Election Commission maintains that no claims and objections have been filed by political parties over names wrongfully included or excluded in the draft electoral list in Bihar, political workers — including Booth Level Agents (BLA) on the ground — claim that they have filed many such complaints.
In fact, party workers say that when they flag the deletion of names of eligible voters through these complaints, Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) tell them to ask voters to instead file Form 6, which is meant for first-time voter registrations.
According to data furnished by the Election Commission of India on Saturday (August 9, 2025), zero claims have been filed by over 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLA) appointed by political parties, while 7,252 claims have been filed by individual voters. However, the Form 6 applications are pouring in, with 43,123 having been filed so far.
DATA | Analysis of Bihar SIR electoral rolls hints at higher voter deletions in Muslim-majority districts
Counter-signed complaints
The Hindu spoke to a number of BLAs from Opposition parties who said that they had filed claims and objections on plain paper and got them counter-signed by EROs and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) as receipts. The ECI, however, has not registered these as complaints.
“I have filed a complaint regarding the deletion of 20 names in Bahadurpur Assembly Segment in Darbhanga with the BLO, who is supposed to forward it to the District Magistrate,” Amit Kumar Paswan, a BLA of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), told The Hindu.
Mr. Paswan said the BLO had counter-signed his complaint as a receipt in duplicate, and his party later forwarded it to the District Magistrate as well. A copy seen by The Hindu shows that the complaint was written on plain paper and not in any specified format or form or with the party letterhead.
Similarly, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Mukund Singh, who is leading a team filing claims and objections after the SIR, said that her party has filed many complaints. She was clueless about why they were not being registered in the ECI data though they have been counter-signed as receipts by the officials responsible.
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Unclear format
According to the Rules of Electoral Registration 1960, Form 7 has to be filed to challenge the addition of names or seek the deletion of names, Form 6 for first time registration, and Form 8 for changes in the particulars of a voter in the draft rolls.
It was not clear whether there is a specific format or form which the BLA is expected to use to raise claims and objections, though the Handbook on Electoral Registration does give BLAs a specific format to seek the addition and deletion of names.
A senior ECI official in Delhi, who did not wish to be named, said no claims and objections can be accepted if they are not in proper format.
Also Read | Absurd to link SIR in Bihar with Tamil Nadu, says Election Commission
‘ECI pushing for Form 6 instead’
RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari, however, accused the ECI of trying to “spread confusion”, saying that if a voter’s name if deleted then there is no specific provision to challenge it and Form 6 is the only recourse available to get back into the electoral list.
“ECI is running away from its responsibility. It is saying no party has filed complaints, but the fact is that many complaints have been filed,” he added.
Why has Bihar’s SIR caused a stir in Tamil Nadu? The Election Commission of India has dropped 65 lakh voters in Bihar following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. And hundreds of kilometres away, in Tamil Nadu, this has sparked a political stir. How are the two even connected? Is it just political anxiety, a legitimate concern — or a calculated strategy to reshape the state’s electoral map? Let’s find out. | Video Credit: The Hindu
In a statement on Saturday (August 9, 2025), the CPI (ML) also said that despite filing complaints with district and State officials, the “complaints” column in the ECI’s daily bulletins fail to record these numbers. It added that people whose names have been deleted in the draft roll are being forced by ECI officials to get their names restored by filling Form 6, which is meant for new voters.
“CPI (ML) has been repeatedly raising this issue of how Form 6 is being forced on people whose votes have been deleted, leaving no mechanism to file complaints and thereby allowing the ECI to issue daily press releases showing zero complaints filed,” it said.
