SIR of Bihar’s electoral rolls and its political ripple effects

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar has raised concerns about possible disenfranchisement of migrant voters. Bihar, along with Uttar Pradesh, is a key source of outmigrants, and people from these two States are relocating in large numbers. This mobility is visible across the country. While it was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is little data to document it. The last Census was in 2011. The 2027 Census will capture these migration patterns of the last 15 years, but there are proxy data sets and recent sample surveys that give insights into where people are going and from where.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is clear that one of the objectives of the SIR is to eliminate migrants who have relocated out of the State from Bihar’s electoral rolls. The concerns regarding migrant voting rights is misplaced, for the simple reason that they are supposed to be voters where they have migrated to — where they are ordinarily residents. The Bihar SIR is an experiment in determining whether one can vote, and where one can vote; whether one is a citizen, and where one is a resident. This experiment in both demographic accounting and engineering will have many political implications, far beyond Bihar.