Opposition up in arms over Bihar SIR, but survey shows only 4.2% view it as poll issue

The Election Commission of India published the draft Bihar electoral roll on Friday. (File: PTI)

The Opposition's aggressive posturing against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls announced by the Election Commission of India in Bihar may have failed to gain the support of a vast majority of voters, the findings of a recent survey in the poll-bound state have revealed.

According to the 'State Vibe Survey of Bihar elections 2025', as many as 34.5 percent of the respondents said they believed that the electoral roll revision exercise undertaken by the Election Commission is intended at "weeding out illegal voters" as compared to only 14.8 percent who saw it as an "exercise to manipulate election results".

Another 15.8 percent view the Bihar SIR as a "routine exercise to update voter list" while 27.3 percent said "it was not required at this time", the survey said.

On another question of what voters saw as the biggest issue in the coming elections, respondents ranked unemployment right at the top with 49.5 percent votes, law and order second with 12.2 percent, price rise on third with 11.1 percent, corruption fourth with 9.4 percent votes and those undecided at 4.4 percent.

Notably, the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which has turned into a common cause for the Opposition to target the Centre over "voter fraud" and "deliberate manipulation" to "disenfranchise eligible voters", figures sixth on the list with only 4.2 percent of the respondents viewing it as the topmost election issue for them.

The Opposition, however, remains undeterred and continues to protest against the Centre and the EC over the issue both in the Bihar Assembly and the Parliament. On Friday, both houses of Parliament faced repeated disruptions as Opposition members protested on the issue.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that anyone involved in the SIR exercise is "working against India" and that their actions amounted to "treason".

"We have open and shut proof that the Election Commission is involved in vote theft... Most importantly, whoever in the Elections Commission is involved in this exercise, right from top to bottom, we will not spare you. You are working against India and this no less than treason. Wherever you are, even if you are retired, we will find you," Gandhi said.

"Our suspicion grew during Maharashtra elections. We conducted our own investigation for six months and what we got is an atom bomb. The Election Commission won't be visible in the country when this atom bomb will explode," he said.

Leaders of several Opposition parties, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, on Friday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him to schedule a special discussion on the ongoing voter list revision in Bihar without any further delay.

Back in Bihar, RJD MLA and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Tejashwi Yadav has claimed that "the rights and existence of the people were being snatched through SIR".

"There is a conspiracy to deprive them of all kinds of government welfare schemes by deleting their names from the voters’ list," he said, adding that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's silence on this matter is dangerous for democracy.

"We will fight for the protection of justice and democracy at every level," he added.

The Election Commission of India, however, has continued with the exercise as per its schedule and released the Bihar draft electoral roll on August 1. The Opposition-backed petitions in Supreme Court seeking to stop the exercise have also failed so far with the top court only suggesting that the EC include Aadhaar and voter cards among its list of documents for voter verification during SIR.