Over 100 names ‘missing’ from electoral rolls in Bihar’s Jehanabad

Residents, mostly from marginalised communities, claim deletion; officials assure rectification via Form 6

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Jehanabad district in Bihar was infamously known as the “flaming field” of central Bihar, with hundreds killed in caste massacres and India’s biggest jailbreak occurring here in November 2005. Nearly two decades later, the district is back in focus - this time over concerns surrounding electoral rolls.

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Following the publication of the draft electoral rolls on August 1, after a Special Intensive Revision (SIR), over a hundred voters from the minority community in Jafarganj locality of Jehanabad town have alleged that their names are missing. The issue has since become a key point of discussion among residents of the area, many of whom are poor marginal workers.

One such resident is Ladli Khatun, 42, (EPIC No. RRS1130707), who claimed that her name has been omitted from the draft list. “I was born in 1983 and have been exercising my franchise for a long time but this time I could not find my name in the draft voters list. How will I vote in the upcoming Assembly elections?” she said, standing outside her home which was hemmed between ugly concrete structures in a narrow, dingy bylane nestled cheek-by-jowl with unplastered walls and rickety corrugate roofs. The rainless monsoon day light barely reaches the footpaths crisscrossing the bylanes.

Garbage, along with human and animal excreta, were strewn across the locality and residents were rummaging through it barefoot with their voter ID cards in hand looking for an official to examine their name, either online or on the list

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“I don’t remember exactly at which polling booth I had voted in earlier elections except that I had gone to the local school to cast my vote where in different rooms, different booths were camped,” Ms. Khatun added, as her ten-year-old son stood beside her in festive green Eid attire. Her EPIC card lists her husband as Mohd. Sallaudadin and her father as Mohd. Zarin Sah.

“All the four polling booths of Jafarganj are camped at the local government Nav Srijit Primary School,” Sarfaraj Alam, 65, a resident and social activist, said.

Similarly, Mohd. Faiyaz Alam, 43, a casual worker from Jafarganj, was also unable to locate his name in the draft rolls. “I’ve been using my franchise since 2010 at the local government school with this voter’s card bearing EPIC No. RRS0599878,” he said, showing the card that mentions his birth year as 1983 and names his wife as Aashiya Khatun and father as Mohd. Kallu Alam. “My father was a casual painter and so am I, but why did they delete my name from the list? Now, what should I do? Will I not be able to vote this time? Why?” he asked, mistaking this correspondent for an Election Commission official.

Since the publication of the draft rolls, several residents in Jafarganj have been seen carrying their voter ID cards, searching for their names either online or in printed copies. At a temporary roadside structure nearby, a group of five residents sat with printouts of the rolls and EPIC cards in hand, discussing possible reasons for the deletions and how to get their names re-entered.

“It’s a well-thought of design to delete name of most of the Muslim and Extremely Backward Class voters from the list. Everyone knows this [political design],” claimed one of the residents, who declined to share his name. “What will you do by knowing my name?” he said with a puckish smile, as others chuckled and returned to scanning the draft list.

District Magistrate Alankrita Pandey and Deputy Election Officer (Dy. EO) Poonam Kumari told The Hindu that the residents need not panic. “They can get their names added through Form 6,” Ms. Pandey said. “We’ll hold special camps there to include names of genuine voters in the list and before this exercise we’ll make the residents aware about the special camps through announcements on mics,” Ms. Kumari added.

Local Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Suday Yadav, also known as Kumar Krishna Mohan, was to visit the locality on Tuesday to meet  “unnerved” residents. “I’m going there [Jafarganj locality] to meet those residents. It is strange how such a large number of voters’ name have been deleted from the released draft list from a particular area where maximum residents come from Muslim community?” he said, while seated at a roadside tea stall outside the district collectorate. Mr. Yadav had defeated Janata Dal (United) candidate Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma in the 2020 Assembly election.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), another Opposition party, conducted a preliminary survey in the locality. “Out of total 157 voters of four polling booths in Jafarganj locality of the town, as many as 130 are from the Muslim community and 27 are from other Hindu castes,” Ramadhar Singh, district secretary of the party, said.

According to the latest electoral draft rolls in Bihar, the State has 7.24 crore electors - over 56 lakh fewer than the rolls prepared in January 2025. In Jehanabad district alone, 53,089 names (6.4%) were not found in the draft rolls released on August 1. As per the Election Commission, such deletions typically occur in cases where voters have died, are registered in more than one location, have permanently migrated out of the State, or are untraceable.