In the wake of a tumultuous election season in Bihar, two parallel developments are drawing attention to the delicate balance of democracy in the state: a procedural controversy over the issuance of voter eligibility notices and a major introspection drive by the CPI-ML (Liberation) following a disappointing electoral performance. Both stories, reported by The Indian Express and Hindustan Times, highlight the complexities and challenges facing Bihar’s political and electoral landscape as the year draws to a close.
During the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in September 2025, a wave of concern swept through Bihar’s election machinery. According to The Indian Express, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) across the state discovered “pre-filled notices” suddenly appearing on their log-ins within the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) centralised portal. The sheer scale was striking—these notices, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, were addressed to voters who had already submitted their forms and whose names had appeared in the draft rolls published in August.
What set off alarm bells was not just the volume, but the process itself. Under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, only the local ERO is authorized to doubt a voter’s eligibility and issue such notices. Yet, these new notices were generated centrally by the EC, not by the EROs themselves. Each notice bore the ERO’s name, but the officers hadn’t created them. This procedural anomaly raised eyebrows among officials, many of whom chose not to act on the notices due to concerns over jurisdiction and the sanctity of the legal process.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar underscored the legal principle at an August 17 press conference, describing electoral revision as a “decentralised construct.” He stated, “Neither I nor my fellow Election Commissioners nor any EC official or you can add or delete votes, except for following the legal process.” This stance emphasized the statutory importance of local authority in the sensitive process of revising electoral rolls.
The notices themselves were uniform and pre-filled, written in Hindi, and included the voter’s name, EPIC number, Assembly constituency, booth number, serial number, and address. Each one asked the recipient to appear before the ERO with documents to establish eligibility, citing incomplete or deficient documentation as the reason for doubt. Interestingly, the notices did not display a visible date of issue, but officials noted that the last eight digits of the serial number encoded the date—such as “13092025” for September 13, 2025.
Despite the procedural controversy, the episode did not result in mass deletions from the voter rolls. Of the 6.866 million deletions recorded during the Bihar revision, only 9,968 remain unexplained; the remainder were attributed to death, migration, duplication, or absence, according to official data reported by The Indian Express. Several EROs, wary of overstepping their legal authority, opted not to pursue these centrally generated notices.
On the ground, the notices caused confusion among some voters. RJD MLA Osama Shahab, an elector in Siwan’s Raghunathpur, received a notice but retained his name after a hearing. His Booth Level Officer (BLO), Jay Shankar Prasad Chaurasiya, explained, “None of the notices given to me led to any deletions.” Another voter, Tarik Anwar, recounted, “When I went for the hearing, I was told my name was on the rolls.” In another Siwan booth, a BLO said he was given notices for six electors whose documents were already uploaded; he assumed minor spelling mismatches were to blame. Ultimately, none of those names were deleted when the final roll was published on September 30.
The Election Commission, when approached by The Indian Express with a detailed questionnaire on December 12, did not respond. The Bihar Chief Electoral Officer was also unavailable for comment. EC officials did clarify, however, that the notices were generated after identifying “logical errors” or “logical discrepancies” in submitted forms and documents, and that electors had been asked to attach documents from a prescribed list, or extracts from the 2003 electoral roll—the last time an intensive revision was conducted.
While the procedural hiccup in the voter verification process played out, Bihar’s political opposition was dealing with its own crisis. The CPI-ML (Liberation), a key player in the state’s opposition INDIA bloc, has announced a weeklong village-level assessment programme to dissect the reasons behind its poor showing in the recent assembly elections. As reported by Hindustan Times, the party will hold meetings in around 25,000 branches across Bihar from December 18 to December 24, 2025.
The programme kicked off on December 18 with the observation of Sankalp divas, marking the death anniversary of Vinod Mishra, the party’s first general secretary. State secretary Kunal explained the significance of the initiative: “There will be meetings across all our village branches from December 18 to December 24. This time, the programme holds significance as the election results have come and we are still assessing the reasons behind the poll debacle of the party. There would be discussions on organisational matters and other challenges before the party during the programme.”
The CPI-ML’s electoral performance was, by any measure, disappointing. The party won only two seats out of 20 contested in the latest assembly elections—a sharp decline from the 12 seats it secured out of 19 in 2020, and the two parliamentary seats it won out of three contested in the 2024 general election. In response, the party is set to renew its membership drive, aiming to recruit approximately 110,000 cadres, and to deepen its grassroots engagement.
Despite setbacks, party officials remain resolute. Kunal emphasized that CPI-ML will continue to play its role as a strong opposition force at the grassroots and will organize mass agitations against what it calls the state government’s “faulty policies,” including the ongoing anti-encroachment drive. Another party leader argued, “People from the downtrodden and oppressed sections are getting displaced owing to the anti-encroachment drives. The government is required to give alternative accommodation to the displaced people.”
Looking ahead, the CPI-ML is not only focusing on Bihar. The party is strategizing for the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal, seeking alliances with CPM and other left parties. “We are looking forward to having an alliance with CPM and other left parties and would support forces which are against the BJP in West Bengal in the coming polls,” Kunal stated.
As both the Election Commission and Bihar’s political opposition grapple with challenges—one procedural, the other organizational—the state’s democratic processes are under scrutiny. How these issues are resolved will shape the political landscape not just in Bihar, but potentially in other states facing similar tests of electoral integrity and opposition resilience.
