Ranchi, August 22: After Bihar, Jharkhand may soon see a massive voter list clean-up under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) as former Chief Minister and BJP MLA Champai Soren on Friday said that the process will definitely be carried out in the state.
Referring to the Bihar exercise, Soren said the Election Commission has deleted nearly 65 lakh names from the rolls there—22 lakh were of deceased persons and over 7 lakh were duplicate entries. “But who are the remaining 35 lakh? Why are they not coming forward?” he asked.
The Saraikela legislator also targeted the opposition for questioning the Bihar SIR, saying the drive was essential for fair elections. “Once SIR is conducted in Jharkhand, a large number of fake voters will also be removed. The revision is necessary to ensure accurate voter lists,” he added.
Backing Soren’s demand, Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi said SIR should be implemented across the country, and especially in Jharkhand. “Even during the assembly elections, we had highlighted how demographic changes are affecting the rights and jobs of tribal communities,” Marandi told reporters on the sidelines of the monsoon session of the Assembly.
Significantly, the Election Commission of India (ECI) kicked-off a Special Intensive Revision campaign of the electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. Under this exercise, the voter list is being revised afresh to identify and remove duplicate, fake, or ineligible names, and to add genuine voters who may have been left out.
The process began on June 25, 2025, with officials distributing enumeration forms to all eight crore voters registered in Bihar. The ECI has set a deadline of September 30, 2025, for publishing the final updated electoral roll.
