Since #VoteChori has already succeeded in 2024, we are destined to endure its consequences until 2029; if it happens again in 2029, the political voice of the marginalised could disappear entirely.
Published Aug 12, 2025 | 12:00 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 12, 2025 | 12:00 PM
INDIA bloc's protest against the alleged 'vote chori'. (X)
Synopsis: What is happening in Bihar in the name of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is not harmless bureaucracy but a political weapon aimed at deleting millions of legitimate voters. It breaches multiple constitutional safeguards. If votes disappear, so will the only peaceful weapon for change.
When Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was detained for protesting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls in New Delhi on Monday, 11 August, he summed it up in one line: “This is about saving the Indian Constitution.”
He’s right. What is happening in Bihar is not harmless bureaucracy — it is a political weapon aimed at deleting millions of legitimate voters. If SIR continues as planned, crores, especially Dalits, migrants, minorities and the rural poor, could be erased from the rolls. That would strip away decades of hard-won gains in justice, welfare and dignity.
The Constitution is clear: Universal adult franchise is guaranteed under Article 326, which gives every adult citizen the right to vote without preconditions.
Yet, the SIR demands proof of citizenship, sometimes even of parental citizenship. In Bihar, where just 2.8 percent of people have birth certificates and less than half of those aged 20–40 hold matriculation certificates, such requirements weaponise a technicality. By shifting from jus soli (citizenship by birth) to jus sanguinis (citizenship by descent), the process risks excluding lakhs of voters.
This is a direct contradiction of BR Ambedkar’s belief, who played a vital role in setting up the Election Commission of India, that no adult should lose the right to vote due to prejudice, poverty or bureaucratic whim.
Ambedkar warned repeatedly that political interference in the Election Commission and discrimination in electoral laws would destroy democracy. He argued that adult franchise was the lifeblood of equality, and if it were denied, the rest of the Constitution would collapse.
Legally, SIR does not just raise concerns; it breaches multiple constitutional safeguards. Article 325 mandates one unified electoral roll without discrimination, yet SIR splits voters into “trusted” (pre-2003) and “suspect” (post-2003) categories, targeting precisely those with the least documentation: Migrants, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Muslims.
The right to equality, guaranteed by Article 14, is violated by arbitrary deadlines and the rejection of documents such as Aadhaar and ration cards. Voters are given barely a month — during monsoon season — to submit papers, an unreasonable demand that burdens the poor, the illiterate and rural residents who cannot travel or arrange for paperwork in time. Many from Bihar who are migrants in other states for work have missed these deadlines.
Article 19(1)(a), which protects freedom of expression, is undermined because voting is a political act, and the climate of intimidation created by intrusive verification and harassment suppresses participation.
Article 21’s guarantee of life and liberty is also compromised when names are deleted without hearings, violating the principle of natural justice and stripping people of dignity.
The Supreme Court in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978) ruled that any State action must be “fair, just, and reasonable,” and SIR’s mass purging of names fails this test entirely.
Even Article 324, which gives the Election Commission power to fill gaps in the law, cannot justify this overreach; in Mohinder Singh Gill v. CEC (1978), the Court made clear these powers do not allow overriding the law.
The Representation of the People Act, 1950, specifically Sections 21(3) and 22, requires clear reasons and due process for roll revisions. Yet Bihar’s mass re-verification comes only months after the Special Summary Revision (October 2024–January 2025) without any evidence of large-scale irregularities, making it arbitrary and unlawful.
This fight is political for Rahul Gandhi, and agreeing with him is personal for me.
I do not vote for temples or communal slogans; I vote for policies that matter to the working class and the marginalised — like a caste census and expanded reservations; filling government job backlogs and ending contractualisation; universal free healthcare with at least four percent of the budget; decent housing for rural doctors and higher hardship allowances; a Right to Apprenticeship Act with ₹1 lakh annual stipends for diploma holders and graduates; filling 30 lakh Union government vacancies; free schooling from Class I to XII; collateral-free education loans; women’s empowerment through ₹1 lakh annual cash transfers to the oldest woman in poor households and 50 percent reservation for women in central jobs; fair Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for farmers at Swaminathan rates; protections for fishing communities; stronger workers’ rights, including for gig and migrant labourers; and the complete eradication of manual scavenging.
Every year, I meet nearly a thousand workers — Dalits, women, migrants and farmers — across cities, villages and coasts. Their daily reality is exploitation, inaccessible healthcare, broken promises on reservations, and insecure livelihoods.
If their votes disappear, so will their only peaceful weapon for change. Since #VoteChori has already succeeded in 2024, we are destined to endure its consequences until 2029; if it happens again in 2029, the political voice of the marginalised could disappear entirely.
Bihar’s SIR looks like a pilot project for nationwide disenfranchisement before the 2029 elections. The strategy is clear: Question citizenship en masse, demand near-impossible paperwork, brand entire communities as “suspect,” and quietly delete millions of names without due process.
It is a bureaucratic coup — bloodless, silent, and devastating. Ambedkar foresaw such dangers, warning that without an independent Election Commission and a genuine commitment to equal franchise, democracy would become a facade masking majoritarian dominance.
Rahul Gandhi’s fight against SIR is not merely a Congress political strategy; it is about whether India’s poor will retain any say in shaping their future. When names are deleted from the rolls, it is not just a ballot being stolen — it is healthcare, education, jobs, land rights, and justice being taken away.
For the privileged, losing a vote may be an inconvenience. For the poor, it is the death of hope itself. Poll rigging is not a glitch; it is the theft of our collective future. The machinery has been exposed. The only question now is whether we will act before the democratic map of India is quietly redrawn, without its most vulnerable voices.
(Rejimon Kuttappan is an independent journalist and workers’ rights activist. Views are personal. Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
