Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 | CEC Gyanesh Kumar dodges question on claims of 'infiltrators' in voter list

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday, October 5, declined to comment on questions regarding alleged “infiltrators” and foreign nationals, particularly Bangladeshi and Rohingyas, in Bihar’s voter list, even as he wrapped up a two-day visit to the state to review preparedness for the upcoming Assembly polls.

The CEC Gyanesh Kumar, accompanied by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, arrived in Patna on Friday evening and held a series of meetings with political parties, top state officials, and district administrations to assess law and order and logistical arrangements for the high-stakes election, expected to be announced today afternoon.

At a press conference on Sunday, Kumar faced repeated questions from reporters about the alleged presence of “illegal immigrants” — a charge often raised by BJP leaders, who have said that the recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was aimed at identifying and removing such names.

Watch CEC's response to one such question

However, the CEC chose not to respond to queries about how many “infiltrators” or ghuspaithiya were found or deleted during the revision exercise.

Here is one more instance of CEC being asked the same question.

Earlier, during their meeting with the Election Commission on Saturday, political parties presented contrasting views on the SIR process. The ruling NDA maintained that the revision was essential to “purify” the voter list.

“The EC is most welcome in Bihar. May all political parties extend full cooperation in the grand festival of democracy (loktantra ka mahaparv) that the assembly elections are going to be,” senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha said.

The Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc, however, accused the exercise of being politically motivated. Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar alleged that “the names of many persons have been deleted during SIR” and urged the EC to ensure no wrongful deletions had taken place.

CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, one of the petitioners who has challenged the SIR in the Supreme Court, claimed there had been a “disproportionate deletion of female voters” and questioned the transparency of the process.

The EC’s visit came days after the publication of the final electoral roll, prepared after a three-month-long SIR. Over the next few weeks, the Commission is expected to ensure the smooth election finalise the election schedule, marking the formal start of Bihar’s electoral season.

With PTI inputs