SIR led to record turnout in Bihar Assembly polls: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday asserted that the “successful” Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar last year had led to a significant rise in voter turnout in the assembly polls that followed.

Speaking to reporters at Patna airport, the CEC, who is on a two-day tour of the state, said the voting percentage in the 2025 Bihar assembly polls was higher than turnouts witnessed in advanced countries such as the US, the UK and France.

“Bihar is the land where Vaishali, the cradle of democracy, is situated. We take pride in the fact that the SIR was conducted here successfully for the first time,” Kumar said.

The CEC pointed out that following the mammoth exercise, conducted over a three-month period during which around 70 lakh names were knocked off the electoral rolls, a sharp rise was seen in the voter turnout when assembly polls, which were held soon afterwards. “As you all know, men and women came out in large numbers to vote and the turnout broke all records in the state. It may be noted that the voter turnout in Bihar assembly polls was higher than what has been seen, over the years, in major democracies like the US, the UK, France, Spain and Japan,” the CEC added.

The assembly polls held in November last year registered a voter turnout of 67.25 per cent, which, according to the Election Commission, was the highest for the state since Independence.

According to officials, the CEC is scheduled to interact with around 500 booth-level officers (BLOs) at Nalanda University in Rajgir on Monday to hear them about their ground-level challenges and suggest measures to make the electoral process more effective and accessible.

The CEC will also launch Electoral Literacy Club 2.0 and ECINET at a conference in Patna during his visit. The Election Commission had launched electoral literacy clubs in 2018 under the SVEEP programme to familiarise students and young citizens with democratic values, the electoral process, and the role and functioning of the EC.

“In view of the changing information and communication environment and the growing digital engagement of young people, the ELC programme is now being redefined as ELC 2.0. The objective is to develop ELCs in schools, colleges and universities as active, experiential and digitally enabled platforms operating throughout the year,” officials said.

A large number of students, teachers, vice-chancellors, principals and heads of institutions from more than 400 educational institutions across Bihar will participate in the conference.

Senior officials of the Election Commission, along with Bihar’s chief secretary, development commissioner, additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries of the Education, Health, Science and Technology, and Technical Education departments, will also attend the conference.

During the conference, its logo will also be unveiled and the new working framework will be introduced. Presentations will also be made on the vision, mission, key features and framework of ELC 2.0, as well as India’s electoral process and the ECINET platform, they said.

“The ELC 2.0 aims to use this network to develop factual and experiential understanding of the electoral process among young people and empower them to become ambassadors of electoral awareness within their families, institutions and communities. A dedicated ELC registration and onboarding portal has been developed for this purpose and will be accessible through the EC website and the ECINET App,” they said.

The CEC will also visit Sitamarhi, Madhubani and Vaishali and interact with the district election machinery. He will also visit important sites associated with Bihar’s rich historical and cultural heritage.