AS THE claims and objections phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar comes to an end, polling booth-wise data shows that two of the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region’s four districts have seen among the highest rates of voter deletions.
In all, 65 lakh voters were deleted across Bihar’s 38 districts in the draft electoral rolls, accounting for 8.31% of its total existing electorate of 7.9 crore. At the district level, Gopalganj (which shares a border with Uttar Pradesh) recorded the highest deletion rate at 15.1%. The next highest deletion rates were in Purnia and Kishanganj districts – both in the Seemanchal region, that borders West Bengal and Nepal – at 12.08% and 11.82%, respectively.
In Seemanchal’s remaining two districts, Katihar and Araria, the deletion rates were below the state average, at 8.27% and 7.59%, respectively.
The only other districts with a deletion rate above 10% are Madhubani (which borders Nepal) at 10.44%, and Bhagalpur (at the Jharkhand border) at 10.19%.
Seemanchal’s four districts have the highest Muslim populations among all the districts in Bihar, as per the 2011 Census. The highest concentration of Muslims is in Kishanganj at 67.89%, followed by Katihar at 44.47%, Araria at 42.95%, and Purnia at 38.46%.
Besides the four Seemanchal districts, Muslims account for more than 15% of the population in 11 other districts. As a whole, Muslims make up 16.87% of Bihar’s population.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary of the BJP told The Indian Express that there had been a surge in applications for residential certificates – one of the 11 EC-mandated identity documents for the SIR – especially in Seemanchal, which he claimed suggested “that many of the applicants are immigrants from other countries”.
RJD MLA Shahnawaz Alam, who represents the Jokihat seat in Araria district, however, points out that with the larger Seemanchal region being among the most backward in Bihar, most people possess few documents besides Aadhaar and ration cards – neither of which is among the 11 identity documents mandated by the EC for the SIR process. Residential or domicile certificates are easier to procure – ironically with just an Aadhaar, as reported by The Indian Express earlier.
Seemanchal voter deletions
In Seemanchal, the most common reason for deletion was ‘permanently shifted’ voters, who account for 2.97 lakh or 39.29% of all deletions across its four districts. At 2.54 lakh, ‘deceased’ voters were the next largest group, accounting for 33.57% of all deletions, followed by ‘absent’ or ‘untraceable voters’ at 1.38 lakh or 18.25%, and ‘already enrolled’ or ‘duplicate’ voters at 67,191 or 8.89%.
Share of deletions by reason, Seemanchal vs Bihar
As a proportion of total deletions, Seemanchal saw significantly more deletions for ‘absent’ or ‘untraceable’ voters than the state average of 14.82%. The shares of ‘permanently shifted’ and ‘deceased’ voters roughly match the state averages of 40.47% and 34.04%, respectively. The deletions for ‘already enrolled’ voters in Seemanchal, however, was below the state average of 10.69%.
‘Permanently shifted’ was the most cited reason for deletions in Purnia (39.8%), Kishanganj (40.87%) and Katihar (43.31%). In Araria, ‘deceased’ was the most common reason at 45.4%, followed by ‘permanently shifted’ at 32.32%. In the other three districts, ‘deceased’ was the second most common reason – at 31.33% in Purnia, 27.03% in Kishanganj and 31.88% in Katihar.
Araria district’s deletions make it somewhat of an outlier in Bihar – its deletions for ‘deceased’ and ‘already enrolled’ are significantly greater than the state average and the other districts in Seemanchal, while its deletions for ‘permanently shifted’ are much lower than the averages for Bihar and Seemanchal.
Kishanganj and Purnia stand out in Seemanchal with significantly high deletions for ‘absent’ voters at 23.45% and 21.72% of the total deletions, respectively, compared to the state average proportion of 14.82%. Katihar saw higher deletions for ‘permanently shifted’ voters than the state average, at 43.31% against 40.47%, respectively.
Like the rest of the state, more women voters were deleted than men – across all four districts in Seemanchal, women accounted for 56.71% of all deletions. In Kishanganj, women accounted for as high as 61.22% of all deletions, while in Araria, their numbers were 53.83%.
Among women, around 44% of deletions were on the grounds of ‘permanently shifted’, while 37.47% of all men, ‘deceased’ was the most common reason.
Political landscape in Seemanchal
Over the last three Assembly elections, the BJP-led NDA’s hold in Seemanchal has waned.
In the 2010 Assembly polls, the NDA had won 17 of the region’s 24 seats – the BJP won 13 and the JD(U) four. The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), an ally of the Opposition RJD at the time, won two seats. Among the other Opposition parties, the Congress contesting independently won three seats and the RJD one seat. An Independent, who later joined the JD(U), also won one seat.
In the 2015 elections, the JD(U), RJD and Congress were in an alliance. In this election, the Congress won the most Seemanchal seats at eight, with the JD(U) winning six and the RJD three. The BJP, allied with the LJP at the time, won six seats. The CPI(M-L)L, contesting in an alliance with other Left parties, had won one seat.
By the time of the 2020 Assembly elections, the region had fragmented further with the emergence of the AIMIM, which won five seats (though four of its five MLAs later quit to join the RJD). The BJP won the most seats this time at eight, with ally JD(U) winning another four. The Congress won five seats, and its allies RJD and CPI(M-L)L won one each.
What Seemanchal politicians say on deletions
In the Purnia Assembly seat, where nearly 50,000 voters have been deleted, sitting BJP MLA Vijay Kumar Khemka said the names had been rightfully removed and would not impact the polls. “The EC has done the survey transparently. Names of only those voters who have their names registered at multiple places have been deleted. Only those who (created) discrepancies in past elections and wanted to do the same in future too… are opposing the SIR and deletions.”
Tauquir Alam, a Congress national secretary, had contested the 2020 Assembly election from the Pranpur seat in the Katihar district, but lost to the BJP candidate by less than 3,000 votes. Alam said it was “too early to assess” the impact of the 25,000-plus deletions in his constituency and that his current focus is to ensure genuine voters are included in the final electoral rolls.
The Congress’s Ijaharul Husain, the sitting MLA from Kishanganj, said the deletions would not have a major impact on the elections. “The names deleted were not from any one particular community or caste. Now, as the EC is accepting Aadhaar too, people are providing documents. My team members and I review daily how many applications are filed – from those whose names have been deleted – for the inclusion in the final electoral rolls,” Husain said, adding that Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra has “created awareness among voters and forced the EC to accept Aadhaar”.
In Araria district’s Raniganj, sitting JD(U) MLA Achmit Rishidev also said the deletions were fair. Rishidev had defeated the RJD’s Avinash Mangalam who, however, fears the deletions will cause damage to the Opposition Mahagathbandhan. “Most of the deleted names belong to Yadavs, Muslims and Dalits,” Mangalam claims. “This is going to have a major impact in the upcoming polls. I am inquiring about the reasons for deletion of individual voters and helping in getting required documents to prove they are eligible to vote. For example, there are four people who are alive but their names were deleted by declaring them dead.”
On deletions in the more urbanised areas of Bihar, including Patna district, CPI(M-L)L MLC Shashi Yadav, who contested and lost in the 2020 Assembly polls, said most of the deleted names are of those living in rented accommodations who were unable to produce the required documents. “Also, a lot of jhuggi-jhopdis have been demolished here in the name of development following which voters living there moved to other areas. So they were found ‘absent’ during the SIR exercise. They are from poor and marginalised sections, and they are supporters of the Mahagathbandhan,” she said.