Audit flags manipulation in Bihar Assembly polls, alleges mass disenfranchisement, data suppression
New Delhi: A detailed audit of the 2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections has raised grave concerns about the integrity of India’s electoral process, alleging large-scale voter disenfranchisement, opaque administrative actions and post-poll data manipulation. The report, titled The Bihar Verdict 2025, has been prepared by Vote for Democracy (VFD), Maharashtra, and is based entirely on official data released by the Election Commission of India, statutory provisions, constitutional norms and documented numerical inconsistencies.
According to the report, what unfolded in Bihar was not a series of isolated irregularities or clerical lapses, but a pattern of systemic electoral engineering that effectively hollowed out the democratic process before, during and after polling. The audit argues that the right of citizens to choose their representatives was undermined long before election day through voter roll manipulation, statistical anomalies and the withdrawal of transparency mechanisms.
The report has been authored and compiled by VFD under the guidance of former bureaucrat M. G. Devasahayam, founder of the Forum for Electoral Integrity, along with Pyara Lal Garg, Harish Karnick and Madhav Deshpande.
At the centre of the audit is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls notified by the ECI on June 24, 2025, just months before the Assembly elections. While electoral rolls undergo periodic revision, the report notes that Bihar’s rolls had already been under continuous revision since 2003, with a Special Summary Revision completed in January 2025. Despite this, a fresh and sweeping revision was undertaken without any recorded justification, disclosed empirical basis or transparent methodology.
The report contends that the timing and scale of the SIR violated statutory safeguards under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, while also undermining constitutional guarantees under Articles 14, 19, 21, 325 and 326. It further states that the revision reversed the democratic presumption of inclusion, effectively shifting the burden onto voters to prove their eligibility through a process resembling citizenship verification, without legislative backing.
The impact, the audit says, was immediate and severe. Official ECI data shows that Bihar had 7.89 crore registered voters on June 24, 2025. By the draft roll published on August 1, the electorate had dropped to 7.24 crore, reflecting the deletion of 65.69 lakh voters. The final roll released on September 30 stood at about 7.42 crore electors. However, the report points out that only 3.66 lakh voters were ultimately found to be ineligible, making the scale of deletions nearly twenty times higher than the number justified.
One of the most striking phases occurred between July 21 and July 25, 2025, when more than 21.27 lakh voters were deleted in just three days. During this short period, 5.44 lakh voters were marked as dead, 14.24 lakh as permanently shifted, and those labelled “untraceable” increased by 809 per cent overnight. Despite the SIR being publicly justified as an exercise to remove foreigners from the rolls, the report notes that not a single foreign national was identified.
According to the audit, such figures defy administrative logic and statistical probability, suggesting bulk or algorithm-driven deletions rather than genuine field verification. It argues that the exercise amounted to mass disenfranchisement hidden within official processes.
Following public criticism, the ECI stated that it had received around 17 lakh objections or applications and carried out rectifications. However, the report documents that nearly 22 lakh entries were modified, far exceeding the number of applications claimed. Even after accounting for these corrections, the roll should have mathematically stood at around 7.38 crore voters. Instead, the final figure was declared as 7.42 crore, leaving an unexplained surplus of 3.24 lakh electors. The report notes that no reconciliation statement, independent audit or transparent explanation has been provided for this discrepancy.
The audit further highlights that voter rolls continued to change even after elections were notified, contrary to established legal convention. On October 6, 2025, the electorate stood at 7.43 crore, but by polling day it had increased to 7.46 crore. In just ten days, 3.34 lakh voters were added, including a sudden spike in young voters, which the report says is statistically impossible given eligibility timelines.
Beyond voter rolls, the report points to structural issues in election management. The number of polling booths increased sharply from 77,462 during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to 90,740 in Bihar 2025, without a corresponding expansion in remote or riverine areas. This, the report argues, raises questions about constituency and booth-level engineering.
The Election Commission’s approach to data disclosure also came under scrutiny. Constituency-wise turnout figures and final votes polled before counting, data that had been routinely published in earlier elections were withheld. Instead, only fragmented district-level data was released, making independent verification difficult, if not impossible.
At the grassroots level, the report flags the deployment of around 1.8 lakh “Jeevika Didis” as poll volunteers. These women are beneficiaries of state welfare schemes involving cash transfers, and the report argues that their use blurred the line between welfare delivery and election administration, compromising institutional neutrality. The imbalance in Booth Level Agents further exacerbated the issue, with the ruling alliance deploying more than 91,000 agents while the opposition averaged just 1.55 agents per booth, leaving large sections of polling stations effectively unmonitored.
Polling and counting days were marked by multiple alleged violations, including CCTV failures, VVPAT slips reportedly found discarded on roads, unauthorised vehicles near strong rooms and the transportation of about 6,000 voters from Haryana via special trains, allegedly with free tickets.
The most consequential development, the audit says, came after polling had concluded. On November 12, 2025, official data recorded a uniform 0.18 per cent increase in voter turnout, identical for both men and women across phases. This so-called “midnight hike” added 1,34,145 votes and is said to have altered outcomes in around 20 constituencies. In 21 seats, victory margins ranged from zero to just 15 votes, yet no automatic VVPAT recount was ordered.
The report concludes that the Bihar election represents a new mode of electoral manipulation, carried out not through overt coercion or violence, but through administrative opacity, legal manoeuvring and control over data. It warns that what happened in Bihar is not an isolated aberration but a template that threatens the constitutional promise of universal adult suffrage.
According to the authors, when voters disappear from rolls without explanation, when official numbers fail basic arithmetic tests and when transparency is treated as expendable, the casualty is not just an election result but democracy itself.
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BJP repealed MGNREGA as they have 'allergy' to Mahatma Gandhi’s name: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led Centre, alleging that the MGNREGA was repealed out of "allergy" to Mahatma Gandhi’s name.
He also called for sustained, people-led agitation until the law is restored and the new VB-G Ram G Act is withdrawn.
The CM alleged that the BJP "killed" Mahatma Gandhi as the RAM in the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee Rozgar and Ajivika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) represents Nathuram Godse, the "killer" of Gandhi, and not Lord Rama.
Addressing a preparatory meeting of the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Scheme Bachao Sangram, organised by the Congress state unit here, Siddaramaiah said the struggle must continue "until MGNREGA is reinstated and the VB-G Ram G Act is repealed," urging party workers to turn it into a mass movement from the village to the state level.
The chief minister said, "The Centre has scrapped the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and brought in a new law called VB-G RAM G. Mahatma Gandhi’s name itself causes them an allergy."
He said the issue was discussed seriously at the recent All India Congress Committee (AICC) executive committee meeting, which viewed the scrapping of MGNREGA as a grave matter.
Drawing parallels with farmers’ protests in north India, Siddaramaiah said a similar sustained movement was needed to force changes in laws. He recalled that MGNREGA was enacted during Manmohan Singh’s tenure to make the right to work a basic right for the rural poor.
"Along with employment guarantee, landmark laws like the Right to Food, Right to Information, Right to Education and Forest Rights Act were introduced to address unemployment, hunger and the problems of forest dwellers," he said.
The CM noted that the scheme, which had been in force for nearly 20 years, had provided employment to 12.16 crore workers across the country, including 6.21 crore women.
Criticising the replacement of law, Siddaramaiah alleged that the Modi government had diluted workers’ rights.
"Earlier, rural workers could demand work for up to 365 days in their own villages and even approach courts if work was denied. Now, the Centre decides through notifications where people should work," he said.
Taking a swipe, he remarked, "This is not Dasharatha Ram or Sita Ram or Kaushalya Ram. This is Nathuram — the one who killed Mahatma Gandhi. Through VB-G RAM G, Gandhi is being killed once again."
Siddaramaiah also objected to the increased financial burden on states, stating that states now have to bear 40 per cent of the cost, forcing Karnataka alone to spend around Rs 2,500 crore.
"That is why we have launched the MGNREGA Bachao Andolan. It must transform into a people’s movement," he said.
Addressing the gathering, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar alleged that the Centre will decide the works and not the villages.
According to him, no state government will accept it. Even the BJP ruled states will not implement the scheme.
"Due to the VB-G RAM G, Panchayats will not be allowed to carry out works. After losing works worth Rs one crore to Rs two crore, what is left with the Panchayats," Shivakumar, who is also Congress state president, asked.
He asked his party cadres to hold meetings in every corner of the state to spread awareness about repealing the MGNREGA.
In his address, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge said, the BJP hates Mahatma Gandhi so much that they abolished the law and snatched the livelihood of poor people in the rural areas.
He also preferred calling the new scheme as "VB-Gram G" and not VB-G RAM G as the BJP has called it.
"For us, the livelihood of people is important, not the name of the scheme, but the BJP wants to trap us between the names of Gandhi Ji and Ram. We should not go for that fight. You name whatever you want, but give our villagers employment. If needed, we will change the name of the scheme once our government comes to power," Kharge, son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, said.
According to him, the "VB-Gram G" has been introduced to align it with PM Gati Shakti national master plan.
