Probe Finds Over 5,000 Dubious Voters in Election Commission’s Bihar Draft Roll

Investigation by The Reporters’ Collective Finds Double Voters

August 12, 2025

Thousands of people already registered as voters in Uttar Pradesh have appeared on the Election Commission of India’s draft electoral roll for a single Bihar Assembly constituency, according to an investigation by The Reporters’ Collective. The entries include individuals with two separate voter identity numbers, raising concerns about illegal double registrations before Bihar’s upcoming polls.

The journalists – Ayushi Kar, Harshitha Manwani and Gayatri Sapru – who were aided by data analysts, examined the new draft roll for Valmikinagar, which will vote in the October–November Assembly elections. The team found over 1,000 cases where names, ages and relatives’ details matched exactly between the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar rolls, differing only in address.

Thousands more showed slight alterations in spellings or ages but still matched on other key identifiers. All of them had two distinct Electoral Photo Identity Card numbers, despite the law requiring a single unique number for each voter, The Reporters’ Collective reported.

In the exact matches, the researchers identified voters such as Chhedi Ram, listed as 45 years old with a relative named Sukhl Ram in both states, but with different EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) numbers and addresses. In the altered cases, the name “Shabanam Khatun” in Uttar Pradesh became “Shabnam Khatoon” in Bihar, with a one-year difference in age and a relative’s name spelled differently.

The analysts also found cases with broader variations, such as “Hiralal Kushwaha” in Uttar Pradesh becoming “Hiraman Kushavaha” in Bihar, with similar changes to the father’s surname. When they manually checked hundreds of these suspected duplicates, they found that entries with identical or slightly changed spellings matched accurately 85 percent of the time. In cases with bigger differences in spelling, the accuracy rate was 70 percent.

Analysts began with Valmikinagar because of local reports of irregularities. The constituency borders Uttar Pradesh’s Siswa, Padruana and Khadda seats. By comparing Bihar’s roll with those of the three Uttar Pradesh constituencies, they first identified exact matches, then expanded the search to detect one-to-three-letter changes in names and up to four-year changes in ages.

The Commission has allegedly made such checks more difficult by replacing machine-readable electoral rolls with scanned copies in a specific Hindi font. The data analysts overcame this by converting the scanned lists into readable form for comparison.

Double registrations could occur in border districts where people move for work or marriage, but once a person registers in a new location, the law requires the old entry to be deleted. Some duplicates may predate the current revision, but the Commission had claimed unprecedented accuracy in its latest process, called Special Intensive Revision (SIR), of the Bihar rolls, which was announced on June 24 and is set to be completed in 90 days.

The Election Commission’s revision aimed to remove dead, duplicate, migrated and allegedly illegal voters. Initially, booth-level officials were instructed to collect forms and verify citizenship, identity and residence within 30 days, but after local resistance, the Commission allowed forms to be submitted without documentation, promising the evidence could be provided later.

By Aug. 1, the Commission published the draft list. Its rules now require district officials not to delete any entry without an inquiry and a written order, giving the voter an opportunity to respond. As a result, millions of names remain on the draft roll without having provided documents. The claims-and-objections period is still open.

The findings in Bihar emerged days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission of large-scale roll manipulation in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly constituency. At a press conference on Aug. 7, Gandhi said his party’s analysis found over 100,000 “stolen” votes there, including duplicates, fake addresses, bulk registrations, mismatched photographs and misuse of the enrolment form. He argued that such practices distorted results and harmed the constitutional principle of equal suffrage.

Gandhi said the Congress received 1,15,586 votes in Mahadevapura to the BJP’s 2,29,632, with the BJP winning by a margin of 1,14,046. He attributed the gap to manipulation of the rolls, presenting stacks of printed lists as evidence. He also criticised the Commission for issuing rolls in non-machine-readable formats, making them harder to analyse.

In Mahadevapura, Gandhi’s team reported 11,965 duplicate entries, 40,009 linked to fake or invalid addresses, 10,452 registered at the same address in bulk, 4,132 with invalid photographs and 33,692 from suspected misuse of Form 6. He called the data proof of a constitutional offence and said the method could be in use across multiple states.

Election officials responded that complaints must be accompanied by sworn statements and detailed references before verification, framing Gandhi’s allegations as requests to correct errors. Gandhi countered that the material showed deliberate expansion of rolls, not clerical mistakes.

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