TheWire and Newslaundry peddle misleading claims about SIR in Bihar, get factchecked by ECI
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On 26th August, the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar fact-checked misleading reports published by leftist propaganda outlets The Wire and Newslaundry regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The Bihar CEO not only gave a pointwise rebuttal, but also raised questions over the credibility of these propaganda outlets cherry-picking data to malign ECI’s reputation and lend credence to the opposition’s anti-ECI campaign.
In its ‘ground report’ published on 25th August, The Wire claimed that the ECI’s verification methods for SIR were questionable. The leftist propaganda outlet claimed had that in five constituencies, 1,50,000 voters are clustered around just 1200-1,300 households. Citing its interaction with locals, The Wire claimed that the supposed ‘unusually’ high voter registration indicates that in many cases, the majority of those listed at a given address were actually living elsewhere. The report claimed that there were 14 cases wherein “a few dozens to several hundred names registered at a single address.”
The Wire report says that in many cases, 200 to 389 voters are registered a single address. It alleged that voter clustering is taking place in East Champaran, Bishunpur, Katihar and other areas.
Alleging supposed ‘irregularities’, The Wire asserted the Election Commission did not conduct a house-to-house verification of voters. Moreover, The Wire claimed that in many in cases locals said that they could not recognise certain voters who were registered in their area. It used unfamiliar names and supposedly incorrect addresses argument to cast aspersions on the integrity of the Election Commission and transparency of the SIR exercise.
Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar factchecks The Wire’s propaganda
Refuting The Wire’s propaganda, the Bihar CEO first detailed the scope of SIR in an X post on 26th August, and said that verification of 7.89 crore voters was conducted house-to-house by booth level officers. The CEO added that documents of 99.11 percent of the 7.24 crore electors have already been received.
“1. Scope and Procedure of Special Intensive Revision (SIR): In Bihar, during the Special Intensive Revision period, verification of 7.89 crore voters was conducted house-to-house by booth level officers. As of the Draft list published on August 1, documents of 99.11 percent of the 7.24 crore electors have already been received, and verification is ongoing in the remaining cases. Therefore, the claim that “house-to-house verification was not done in the Special Intensive Revision” is beyond facts and fabricated,” the Bihar CEO said.
Addressing The Wire’s ‘voter clustering’ claims, the Bihar CEO said that the leftist propaganda outlet’s claims are false. The CEO said that in rural and semi-urban areas of Bihar multiple families live at the same address. The absence of land or house number in revenue records, the CEO said, is matter of local socio-geographical reality and not any ‘irregularity’.
“2. The Claim of Voter Clustering is Incorrect: In rural and semi-urban areas of Bihar, multiple families live at the same address under the same house number / same account (Khata Number) / tola / mohalla. Due to the absence of land or house number in revenue records, sometimes hundreds of voters appear registered at the “same address.” This is a local socio-geographical reality, not any kind of irregularity. Therefore, considering clustering as “irregularity” based solely on data is misleading and beyond facts,” the Bihar CEO said.
Regarding The Wire’s assertion that since some locals do not recognise certain voters registered in their area, or notice unfamiliar names, the Bihar CEO said that these are not essentially fraudulent voters as The Wire tried to insinuate, rather, these are students, migrants workers or tenants. Regarding incorrect addresses, the Election Commission official said that during claim objection period, the BLOs did necessary deletion and correction.
3.“So-Called Incorrect Addresses and Unfamiliar Names: Often, names of students, migrant workers, or tenants are listed in the voter list, but current local residents may not have information about them. During the claim objection period, in such cases, BLOs have taken action to fill Form-7 (Deletion) or Form-8 for address correction. Therefore, saying that “local people do not have information about the electors’ names” is not in itself a certified error, and there is no rational basis for such claims,” the CEO said.
The wire की रिपोर्ट की तथ्यों पर आधारित पड़ताल
The wire की यह रिपोर्ट भ्रामक है।
1. विशेष गहन पुनरीक्षण (SIR) का दायरा और प्रक्रिया
बिहार में विशेष गहन पुनरीक्षण अवधि में 7.89 करोड़ मतदाताओं का घर-घर जाकर सत्यापन बूथ लेवल अधिकारियों द्वारा किया गया।
दिनांक 01 अगस्त को… https://t.co/GIa8BAotmM— Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar (@CEOBihar) August 26, 2025
4. Only 14 cases from 5 constituencies out of 7.89 crore voters across 243 constituencies
Lastly, the Chief Electoral Officer pointed out that The Wire report cites only 14 cases in the assembly constituencies of Katihar, Purnia, Madhuban, and Harsiddhi while the SIR’s scope is extended to 7.89 crore voters across 243 constituencies. The CEO asserted that although even in the context of mere 14 cases, ECI has refuted The Wire’s misleading claims, “raising questions on the credibility of the entire process based on such a small partial selected cases (14 cases under investigation) is neither rational nor objective.”
Newslaundry published the same claims
Notably, leftist propaganda outlet Newslaundry also published the same article on its website. Although the contents of the article were same as The Wire’s, the Bihar CEO put up a separate X post refuting their falsehoods about the SIR exercise.
Newslaundry की रिपोर्ट की तथ्यों पर आधारित पड़ताल, Newslaundry की यह रिपोर्ट भ्रामक है।
1. विशेष गहन पुनरीक्षण (SIR) का दायरा और प्रक्रिया
बिहार में विशेष गहन पुनरीक्षण अवधि में 7.89 करोड़ मतदाताओं का घर-घर जाकर सत्यापन बूथ लेवल अधिकारियों द्वारा किया गया।
दिनांक 01… https://t.co/X4VZnlD7Dc— Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar (@CEOBihar) August 26, 2025
The Bihar SIR exercise program has revealed a significant number of fraudulent voters in Bihar. It uncovered around 65 lakh non-existent voters who were then purged from the electoral rolls. The names that have been deleted are mostly those of people who have passed away or who were not found at their registered addresses. The opposition in the state has been mobilizing since the initiative was announced. A significant number of these counterfeit voters are their supporters. No wonder the opposition was even against the carrying out of SIR exercise.
It is essential to mention that ever since the SIR exercise began in Bihar, the opposition parties, particularly, Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have been making one misleading claim after the other to establish a false narrative that the Election Commission is compromised and is acting in favour of the BJP. Beyond the pursuit of immediate electoral gains in poll-bound Bihar, the broader motive is to convince the public that the anti-BJP parties did not lose any election in the last decade but were ‘made to lose’ by ECI to ensure its co-conspirator BJP’s victory.
What initially seemed like Congress’s coping mechanism has turned out to be a full-fledged electoral strategy. On 11th August, the I.N.D.I. Alliance marched to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) New Delhi headquarters, protesting against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Bihar electoral registers and at the same time claiming ‘vote chori’ and voter list discrepancies. They claimed that the drive would result in disenfranchisement and charged that was an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led-government to steal votes.
Earlier, Congress alleged ‘vote chori’ in Maharashtra assembly elections since it suffered a surprising defeat at the hands of the BJP-led alliance even as the ECI refuted their baseless claims. Recently, Rahul Gandhi claimed that a ‘vote theft’ happened in Karnataka during Lok Sabha elections last year. Just as The Wire claimed in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi also alleged voter clustering in Karnataka’s Mahadevpura constituency. Gandhi claimed that 80 fake voters were registered at one house in Mahadevpura, but it turned out that they were not fraudulent but migrant voters.
As OpIndia reported earlier, New York Times, Al Jazeera, and others have amplified Rahul Gandhi’s bogus ‘vote chori’ claim, apparently, to discredit India’s democratic institutions. While the foreign leftist media is amplifying opposition’s vote theft bogey, the Indian leftist media is concocting its own web of lies to aid the anti-BJP parties and allege a ‘democratic collapse’.
