New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Friday (July 25) declared the conclusion of its controversial special intensive revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral roll, framing the exercise as a resounding success carried out with the “full faith” and “active participation” of voters.However, a close analysis of the EC’s own final data reveals a far more troubling picture, marked by opaque statistical categorisation and the flagging of a staggering 64 lakh electors, over 8% of the state’s total electorate, for potential deletion just months before a crucial assembly election.In a final press note that appears designed to quell controversy, the EC has taken the unusual step of merging two previously distinct and politically sensitive categories. The highly contentious “untraceable” voter category has now been mysteriously subsumed into the “permanently migrated” group, creating a single, ambiguous bloc of 35 lakh people.This move effectively conceals the precise number of citizens who election officials could not find at all – a group most at risk of erroneous disenfranchisement.The anatomy of a ‘cleanup’According to the EC’s final figures released on July 25, the month-long door-to-door drive has flagged a total of 64 lakh voters. The breakdown provided is:Approximately 22 lakh deceased electorsApproximately 7 lakh electors registered in more than one locationApproximately 35 lakh electors who have “either permanently migrated or could not be traced”While the removal of deceased and duplicate voters is a standard and necessary procedure, the creation of the vague 35 lakh-strong category is a significant departure from the EC’s own reporting over the past week.As recently as July 24, the commission provided a specific figure of one lakh “untraceable” electors. The sudden decision to merge this data makes independent scrutiny of the SIR’s impact on Bihar’s most vulnerable populations, such as migrant labourers, nomadic communities and the urban poor, all but impossible.A “special summary revision” completed as recently as January 2025, which The Reporters’ Collective found was deemed “robust” by officials, identified only 1.91 lakh migrated voters.The current SIR’s finding of 35 lakh people in the “migrated/untraceable” category represents a nearly 18-fold increase, raising questions about whether the January process was a failure or if the July exercise was excessively aggressive.The 1.2 lakh left outWhile the EC has clarified that all 7.23 crore electors whose forms were received will be included in the draft electoral roll to be published on August 1, it also confirmed that “enumeration forms of approximately 1.2 lakh electors [are] yet to be received”.This group of 1.2 lakh people is now at immediate risk of being disenfranchised. Their names will not appear on the draft roll, and the burden will be entirely on them to notice their exclusion and file a fresh application (Form 6) during the claims and objections period.Critics argue this group is likely to be comprised of the most marginalised citizens who the state machinery failed to reach even after three rounds of visits.A tale of two oppositionsIn a bid to portray the SIR as a transparent and collaborative effort, the EC also released data on the number of booth-level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties from before the start of the SIR until July 25. The data tells a compelling story of how different parties responded to the perceived threat.The data highlights a significant surge in BLA appointments by parties with smaller initial footprints. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), for instance, increased its BLA count from just 76 to 899, a percentage increase of over 1,000%. Similarly, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation expanded its BLA network from 233 to 1,496.While these dramatic percentage increases are amplified by their low starting numbers, they nevertheless point to a concerted effort by these parties to rapidly scale up their ground-level presence during the SIR process.In contrast, Bihar’s largest political parties, who began the process with extensive networks, showed much more modest growth. The main opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, increased its already formidable 47,143 BLAs by just 1%. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party saw a 3% rise from its base of nearly 52,000 agents.With an average of only one BLA for every two polling stations across the state, the capacity of this combined political machinery to effectively scrutinise 64 lakh flagged voter records in the upcoming claims and objections period remains a serious concern.The 30-day gauntletWith the enumeration phase over, the battleground now shifts to the claims and objections period, which will run from August 1 to September 1. This is where the fate of the 64 lakh flagged voters will be decided.The scale of this task is monumental. It averages out to over 26,000 flagged cases per assembly constituency. The state’s election machinery and the political parties’ 1.6 lakh BLAs, roughly one agent for every 67 flagged voters, face a race against time to ensure that the process of rectifying the rolls does not result in the wrongful exclusion of lakhs of genuine citizens.Meanwhile, Bihar’s chief electoral officer posted on X on July 24 that the last date to fill the enumeration form is July 26, along with a promotional video showing the same date.