SIR in Bihar led to record voter turnout in 2025 polls: CEC
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday, August 16, said the "successful" Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls conducted in Bihar last year led to a significant rise in voter turnout in the assembly polls that followed.
Speaking to reporters at Patna airport during a two-day tour of the state, Kumar said the voting percentage recorded in the 2025 Bihar assembly polls exceeded turnouts witnessed in advanced democracies such as the United States, the United Kingdom 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 said that following the exercise conducted over three months, during which about 70 lakh names were removed from the electoral rolls a sharp rise was recorded in voter turnout in the assembly polls held soon afterward.
"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," Kumar said.
The November 2025 assembly polls recorded a voter turnout of 67.25 per cent, the highest for the state since Independence, according to the Election Commission.
According to officials, the CEC is scheduled to interact with around 500 booth-level officers at Nalanda University in Rajgir on Monday to hear about ground-level challenges and suggest measures to make the electoral process more effective and accessible.
Kumar will also launch Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) 2.0 and the ECINET platform 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 commission's role and functioning, officials said.
"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.
More than 400 educational institutions across Bihar will be represented at the conference, with participation from students, teachers, vice-chancellors, principals and institution heads, officials said.
Senior Election Commission officials, along with Bihar's chief secretary, development commissioner, additional chief secretaries, and principal secretaries and secretaries of the Education, Health, Science and Technology, and Technical Education departments, will also attend, according to officials.
The conference will include the unveiling of the ELC 2.0 logo and the introduction of its new working framework, along with presentations on its vision, mission, key features and framework, as well as India's electoral process and the ECINET platform, officials 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," officials said.
Kumar will also visit Sitamarhi, Madhubani and Vaishali to interact with district election machinery, besides visiting sites associated with Bihar's historical and cultural heritage, officials said.
(Inputs from PTI