NOTE: The ruling RSS-BJP saffron fascist clique, through its agent Election Commission, has commenced the mass disenfranchisement exercise of Indian history in the name of SIR. After completing this successfully in Bihar, it now came to 12 states and UTs including Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi recently, through his H files, exposed how a state itself (i.e., the Haryana) has been stolen by the saffron fascist clique. But, the INDIA bloc parties, particularly the ruling DMK of Tamil Nadu, has only shown ‘complacence’ as if nothing is going to happen.

The All Party Meeting held by TN CM Stalin decided ‘to fight this in Supreme Court’; the very same court refused to stay SIR, facilitated the process and ordered the opposition parties “instead of making allegations you must help the people in the SIR process!” Instead of “educating” people about the dangerousness of this so-called exercise, this farce continues to the level of appointing booth agents to ‘educate’ people on ‘how to fill the forms’ etc.,

When the SIR was first introduced in Bihar the INDIA bloc pretended that they want to scrap this exercise altogether. After the SC ordered the EC, that too very vaguely, to accept the Aadhar Card, their tone came down to the level of “SIR should be conducted fairly”! and now when it has expanded to the whole nation, the INDIA bloc is educating people on how to fill the forms!!

This is what the real face of the INDIA bloc that claims itself to be the staunch enemy of fascism!! So, the treachery, half-heartedness, vacillation, rather, blatant betrayal of INDIA bloc in the struggle against fascism has clearly manifested but unfortunately not adequately exposed. It goes without saying that people must be educated and encouraged to fight in the streets, instead of filling the SIR forms. They must be taught to throw away the SIR forms on the face of RSS-BJP fascist clique and to boycott the SIR process altogether. What else the fascist clique can do if the 6.5 crore voters of Tamil Nadu did so?! Or what else the EC and Supreme Court can do?! This is the only way ahead us.

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Although this article was written in the middle of September and originally published in Tamil on October 1, it explains the Vote-Chori and SIR in a detailed manner and puts forward the proletarian view on this subject. So, we request the readers to carefully read and understand the dangerousness. We hope this article would serve the above-mentioned purpose.

Editorial,
Senkanal.

VOTE CHORI — NOT QUANTITATIVE BUT QUALITATIVE  

Opposition parties in India and various intellectuals have been alleging that there were many irregularities and frauds in the 2024 General Elections. Stating that “the people’s verdict has been stolen,” they are calling for an investigation into the assembly elections of states like Maharashtra and Haryana. Are these claims exaggerations, or truthful, fact-based claims?  

Karnataka – The Accusations of Rahul Gandhi: In a press conference held last August in Bengaluru, Rahul Gandhi dropped a ‘bomb’ — a startling revelation about the scam orchestrated by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in favour of the ruling BJP party. Speaking at the conference, he exposed a number of irregularities and frauds that were found in the voter list of Mahadevpura constituency, Karnataka. Over 1 lakh fake voter IDs were discovered to be recently included, courtesy of a Congress-backed team consisting of 30-40 people, who examined the electoral roll of the constituency for the past six months. Initially though, the constituency had recorded an approximate of 7 lakh voters, but this number was inflated with the emergence of fake IDs.  

The scam seems to have taken place in five ways: 

1. Fake voters (i.e. more than one voter per person) – 11,965 people  
2. Fake or invalid addresses – over 40,000 voters. That is, many addresses have door numbers as ‘zero’ or otherwise under fake names. 
3. Bulk voters with single addresses – 10,452 people. For example, can a house of 4 shelter a huge number (80, 300, 3000) of people?  But the voter list say they can!
4. Invalid photos – over 4,132 people  
5. Unlawful usage of Form 6 – 33,692 people. This form is used for registering first-time voters. However, the age of those registered are listed as 50, 60, 70 etc.,

This amounts to the inclusion of over one lakh fake voters in the electoral roll of the Mahadevapura constituency alone. Exposing this blatant fraud that is sending electoral democracy to the grave right in front of our eyes, Rahul Gandhi announced “the Indian electoral system is dead.” This raises a critical question: Does the scale of malpractice and fraud in this single constituency truly justify declaring the entire system of ‘vote-rigging’ and calling it the ‘death of Indian democracy’? 

In fact, it took six whole months just to investigate and uncover these frauds in Mahadevpura. The Election Commission did not provide the voter list for the constituency in a digital format. If they had done so, these discrepancies could have been identified in a matter of hours. Even if the list was provided on standard paper, OCR scanning could have digitized the lists and exposed the fraud with ease. However, the Election Commission supplied the voter lists stacked nearly 20 feet high, printed on a special type of paper that is impossible to scan. Therefore, a Special Team of 40 members prepared by the Congress party worked on the available sources for a painstaking six months to analyse these lists. This evidentially proves that the irregularities exposed in the conference were not innocent errors, but an intentionally engineered fraud!

The reports from Mahadevapura are merely the tip of the iceberg. One can only imagine the phantoms that will be unleashed if a nationwide examination of all electoral constituencies were to take place. 

Besides Mahadevapura, numerous other incidents prove that “votechori” has occurred on a massive scale. For instance, a large set of irregularities have been exposed in the assembly elections held in Maharashtra last November. The information recently obtained by The Wire from the Election Commission through the Right to Information (RTI) Act further strengthens Rahul Gandhi’s arguments. Let’s look at them in more detail. 

The Commission has identified that there is a total of 9.9 crore voters in the state of Maharashtra. Of this, a total of 32 lakh new voters were added in the last 5 years (between the 2019-2024 general elections.) However, the Election Commission has added another 40.81 lakh new voters between the April 2024 General Elections and the November 2024 Assembly Elections within just 5 months (i.e., enrolment of 32 lakh new voters in five years and of 41 lakh new voters in just five months!). Did so many youngsters turn 18 in just five months? Or has there been such a large migration towards Maharashtra in the last year? Absolutely not. This comparison clearly proves that a huge fraud has taken place within the Commission!

 As per the above table, from August 6 to 30 alone, 20.78 lakh new voters (i.e. 42%) have been added, and 3 lakh voters have been removed from the electoral roll. The resulting count amounts to over 17 lakh new voters. Of these, only 3.68 lakh are between 18 and 19 years of age, while the rest are above 20 years of age. This is in direct violation and misuse of Form 6.

Furthermore, out of the 9.9 lakh newly added voters between August 30 and October 15, only 2.26 lakh persons are 18 years of age. The rest are above that age! 

The Election Commission’s misconduct in Maharashtra goes two ways — while fraud, non-existent voters have been added, eligible and legitimate voters have faced removal from the roll itself. For example, the Legislative Assembly elections conducted in the state, saw the deletion of lakhs of voters belonging to Dalit, Adivasi, Muslim and other minority communities. The Congress party has also alleged that “the number of those who have been removed is more than the number of those who have been [falsely] added.”

It goes without saying that those who have been disenfranchised from their constitutional right to vote, are the ones that will likely not vote or endorse the ruling BJP party. 

In just over 4 days between October 15 and October 19, about 6.6 lakh voters faced deletions from the role. That is, 16% of those voters who were disenfranchised, were excluded in just four days. The Maharashtra elections, which was supposed to be held in October, were postponed to November by the Election Commission under lame excuses. It has now been exposed that this time was needed to carry out such frauds and thefts. 

This enrolment of a massive 41 lakh new voters to Maharashtra’s electoral roll has not been evenly spread across the state. Rather, it has only happened in specific constituent assemblies. Wherever the new voters have been enrolled in large numbers, the BJP (Mahayuti) alliance has secured a huge victory.

According to the table above, there are 113 constituent assemblies where less than 4% new voters were added. In those constituencies, the BJP alliance has won 84 seats. Similarly the BJP alliance has won 151 out of 175 constituencies where more than 4% new voters were added. The Election Commission’s own guidelines state that “if more than 4% of new voters are added, it should be subject to strict monitoring.” But in most of the constituencies in Maharashtra where more than 4% of new voters have been added, no clarification whatsoever has been given by the Commission for their (mis)conduct.

Interestingly, out of the 27 constituencies where more than 8% new voters were added, 23 were won by the BJP alliance. Furthermore, 4 out of the 5 constituent seats in Pune and all 4 seats in Nagpur where the maximum number of new voters were added, were won by the BJP alliance!

Of the 4 assembly seats in Nagpur (the city’s southwest region) was won by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis by a margin of 39,710 votes. In this constituency alone, 38,161 votes (i.e. 10.1%) were newly added! It can be transparently noted that the Congress alliance has never won a single constituency where more than 8% of new voters were included.

In addition to that, the total adult population (18 years and above) in Maharashtra amounts to 9.56 crore. However, the trampled data shows over 9.70 crore voters in the electoral list. That is, the number has been inflated to show 16 lakh more people in the electoral roll when compared to the actual adult population living in the state.

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Long before the opposition parties like the Congress even began to speak up, civil society organizations such as the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Vote for Democracy (VD), alongside certain former officials like Parakala Prabhakar and Avay Shukla, have been exposing various truths. For instance, Dr. Parakala Prabhakar has exposed the same 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election riggings and irregularities in detail from a different angle.

Before we begin to understand this fraud, it is imperative that we know what provisional and final voter registrations are. During all elections held in our country, whether legislative or parliamentary, the Election Commission publishes the voter counts every day in two forms. The votes cast until 5 pm will be published by the Election Commission as provisional figures and the votes cast after 5 pm as final figures. The polling stations will close at 5 pm and only those inside the booths will be allowed to vote. New arrivals to the polling station after 5 pm will not be allowed to enter. Tokens will also be issued to those inside; the last person at the gate will receive token 1 and the first person at the gate will receive the final token. That is, the token will be issued upside down. This arrangement is to ensure that no one new enters. Later, the entire scene of those inside voting, beyond the CCTV recordings – will be recorded on a special video. Therefore, no more people can vote after 5 pm, that is, after the provisional voter count is announced. This results in not more than 0.5% ~ 1% of increase to the final voter count. From 1925 to 2024, this discrepancy or hike between provisional and final figure) has never exceeded one percent. Remember this!

The total voter turnout in the last Maharashtra Assembly elections was 66.05% (more than 6.42 crore people.) Of this, those who voted after 5 pm amounts to 7.82% (over 76 lakh people)!!

If we consider this increase using the data available, it can be clearly determined that a huge fraud and voter theft has taken place. The discrepancy or hike between the provisional and final figures as we can see, suggests that the resulting 76 lakh voters make up over 26,000 voters (who casted their votes after 5 pm) in each constituency. This discrepancy or hike in the voter count, ultimately becomes the deciding factor for the victory or defeat of a constituency. There is a total of 288 assembly constituencies in Maharashtra. Out of these, the BJP alliance won 235. Of these, the winning margin of more than 100 constituencies is less than 26,000 votes, says Avay Shukla. So, if you connect these dots you can get a picture!

The Election Commission (ECI) has refused to provide any explanation regarding the aforementioned electoral malpractices and irregularities in Maharashtra, nor has it submitted the CCTV footage or the exclusive video recordings spanning over five hours. This is why, while various opinion polls suggested a Congress-UBT Shiv Sena led alliance would form the government, the data above blatantly reveals that the secret behind the BJP alliance’s ‘Himalayan’ victory lies hidden in this very voter theft, orchestrated hand-in-hand with the Election Commission of India.

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According to a detailed study by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), in the recent 2024 General Elections, over 5 crore votes across the nation were subject to such a ‘hike’ or discrepancy. Parakala Prabhakar states that this altered the winning prospects in 79 parliamentary constituencies spread across almost 15 states. He claims that if this fraud and tampering had not occurred, the BJP-led NDA, which won 293 seats, would have won only 214 seats. Conversely, the INDIA alliance, which won 234 seats, would have secured 313 seats.

When compared to the initial provisional figures, in the seven-phase model of parliamentary elections, the Election Commission took several days to release the final voter turnout data. This model is already complicated by its partitioned procedure of releasing poll results for each phase separately. The EC took 11 days to release the final count for the first phase, 4 days for the second, 4 days for the third, 4 days for the fourth, 3 days for the fifth, and 4 days for the sixth phase.

Even then, the ECI only provided the percentage of difference between the provisional and final tallies, not the absolute gross numbers. Political analyst Parakala Prabhakar alleges that even in elections held in an era without telephones or with poor technological infrastructure, this discrepancy used to be announced the same night. He contends that in today’s ‘Digital India,’ with its massive technological advancements and high-speed internet, no valid reason has been provided for these inexplicable delays.

Similarly, the Election Commission released the revised voter turnout data for the seventh phase a full two days after the election results were declared. Parakala Prabhakar points out that for the second phase, the Commission did not even provide the constituency-wise provisional voter turnout. This means we are in a position where we cannot even begin to understand the scale of the ‘hike’ or discrepancy in Phase 2. Why was this basic data withheld for the second phase? Prabhakar alleges it is because the BJP engaged in massive ‘manipulation and fraud’ during this phase. He provides the following data from Phase 2 to substantiate his claim of an ‘abnormal sweep’, which is as follows:

• West Bengal: Elections in 3 seats; BJP won all 3.
• Uttar Pradesh: Elections in 8 seats; BJP won all 8.
• Madhya Pradesh: Elections in 6 seats; BJP won all 6.
• Chhattisgarh: Elections in 3 seats; BJP won all 3.
• Tripura: Elections in 1 seat; BJP won it.
• Jammu & Kashmir: Elections in 1 seat; BJP won it.
• Karnataka: Elections in 14 seats; BJP won 12.
• Rajasthan: Elections in 13 seats; BJP won 10.
• Assam: Elections in 5 seats; BJP won 4.

Therefore, Prabhakar argues that if you connect the dots, the obscurity of provisional data in Phase 2 and the BJP’s exceptional performance in those very contests reveals the full extent of the voter fraud.

Wherever this discrepancy or ‘hike’ in voter turnout figures was high, the BJP achieved an abnormal victory. In contrast, in constituencies where this discrepancy was less than 1%, the party faced a severe defeat. For instance, in Odisha, the discrepancy was 12.48%. There, the BJP won 20 out of 21 seats. Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, the discrepancy was 12.54%. There, the BJP-led alliance won 21 out of 25 seats.

So, what happened when the discrepancy was minimal? As stated earlier, historically, the difference between provisional and final voter turnout has never exceeded 1% in any election, often remaining around half a percent or less.

Let’s look at the case of Uttar Pradesh which has also voted in seven phases. The difference between provisional and final voter count there is as follows:

Phase 1: 3.25% discrepancy.

Phase 2: Data not available (As we saw, elections were held in 8 seats, and the BJP won all 8).

Phase 3: 0.2% discrepancy.

Phase 4: 0.34% discrepancy.

Phase 5: 0.23% discrepancy.

Phase 6: 0.01% discrepancy.

Phase 7: 0.25% discrepancy.

The result? The BJP-led alliance, which won 67 seats in UP in 2019, managed to win only 36 seats in 2024. (These are all, as Parakala states, irrefutable details from the ECI’s own data and statistics researched by his Association for Democratic Reforms.)

Therefore, it is proven beyond a doubt that large-scale ‘voter fraud’ has taken place! It is also clear that this Parliament and the Modi 3.0 government have been constituted illegally and in an ‘anti-democratic’ manner, as a direct result of massive fraud and manipulation! Furthermore, it is evident that the Election Commission of India has acted as a steadfast ally to the BJP in all these duplicitous acts. This is precisely why Parakala Prabhakar states, ‘What we have is not the Election Commission of India. It is the election wing of the BJP.’

When Rahul Gandhi or others raise questions about these alleged frauds and demand the data, the Election Commission is providing laughable excuses. They claim that releasing the digital voter lists would ‘violate voter privacy,’ and that making CCTV footage public would ‘compromise the privacy of women.’ Moreover, the Commission is allegedly threatening opposition parties who seek to expose the irregularities and fraud in its data. It is demanding that they submit a legal ‘affidavit’ to back their claims, or else issue a public apology, rather than addressing the substance of the allegations.

After these allegations emerged, the Election Commission has amended its rules in a manner that allows for the destruction of CCTV footage just 45 days after the declaration of results. It almost seems like the Election Commission is unashamedly jeering at the opposition parties and the public, as if saying, ‘You keep asking for the CCTV evidence? Well, we have now created a rule to destroy it. What will you do now?’

As a result, a situation has been created where even if the Supreme Court were to order an investigation tomorrow, or if a different government were to come to power in the future, no one will ever be able to uncover these irregularities. The evidence is being systematically made irrecoverable.

One might ask: hasn’t booth capturing and electoral fraud always existed in Indian elections? Yes, it’s true that parties have always cast, or attempted to cast, bogus votes! However, what is unprecedented in Indian history is the act of turning the so-called ‘independent’ Election Commission into a puppet and using it to add or remove crores of voters from the rolls. The scale of the fraud undertaken by the BJP is not just massive, but its very nature is fundamentally different and more dangerous. These events prove that the BJP-RSS’ saffron-fascist network has transformed the Election Commission itself into an auxiliary organ of fascism, as its very own weapon.

This is unprecedented in Indian history!

SIR–NOTHING BUT NRC IN DISGUISE

On June 24, 2024, exactly four months before the Bihar Assembly elections, the Election Commission announced a ‘Special Intensive Revision’ of the voter list in the state. Under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Election Commission is empowered to conduct either a ‘Summary Revision’ (SSR) or an ‘Intensive Revision’ (SIR) of the electoral rolls. However, an Intensive Revision requires house-to-house verification and enumeration. To recall a crucial fact, a Summary Revision (SSR) was already conducted in Bihar after the recent parliamentary elections, between October 2024 and January 2025. Given this context, what is the urgent necessity to conduct an SIR now? And what is the pressing need to carry it out in such a rushed manner, precisely four months before the assembly elections?

The Election Commission has stated that there are numerous discrepancies in the voter list, including many duplicate and migrant voters. Their stated objective is to clean, correct, and create an integral, error-free voter list. However, in reality, the saffron-fascist clique has deployed this ‘Brahmastra’ through the Election Commission with the sole aim of stripping away the voting rights and citizenship of those likely to vote against the BJP – specifically Muslims, Dalits, and Adivasis. This weapon is not aimed only at the state of Bihar but towards the entire country.

How?

The Election Commission of India’s nationwide directive of June 24 establishes a critical two-tier system for voters, using the year 2003 as the cut-off. Individuals already on the electoral roll prior to 2004 only need to provide proof of their prior enrollment, while every voter added after 2003 is now mandated to compulsorily submit one of eleven documents specified by the Election Commission to prove their citizenship.

The Election Commission has further segmented this second category into three major sub-groups based on date of birth, creating a hierarchy:

1) Those born before July 1, 1987, must submit their birth certificate and one of the 11 specified documents.

2) Those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, must submit their own birth certificate along with the birth certificate of one of their parents.

3) Those born after 2005 must submit their own birth certificate plus the birth certificates of both their parents.

While SIRs have been conducted across India before this exercise in Bihar, this is the first SIR that mandates proving citizenship to obtain voting rights, explicitly citing the “high influx of illegal migrants” as a reason. It has assigned July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, as critical cutoff dates. Furthermore, previously valid documents like the Voter ID card (EPIC) and Aadhaar are now deemed insufficient for this purpose. To understand the objective behind these unprecedented moves and these specific dates, one must first understand the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

For years, the RSS has propagated a venomous narrative that migrants from nations like Bangladesh and Pakistan—whom Amit Shah famously termed ‘termites’—are not only corroding and consuming our nation’s resources but are also securing voting rights to elect forces ‘antagonistic’ to India. The core objective of this propaganda is to strip them of both their franchise and their citizenship. The RSS-BJP gang systematically portrays the entire Muslim community within India as ‘foreigners,’ ‘infiltrators,’ ‘illegal immigrants,’ and ‘persons of dubious loyalty.’ Accordingly, they are running a concerted campaign among the Hindu populace of India, arguing that these citizens must be stripped of their citizenship, deported, or imprisoned.

This venomous propaganda was codified into law in 2003. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed that year by the BJP government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee whom M.Karunanidhi of DMK praised as “the right man in the wrong party.” It was this legislation that first inserted the new term “illegal migrant” into the citizenship law, stipulated that such individuals “must be imprisoned or deported,” and fundamentally altered birthright citizenship by introducing the requirement that a person’s parents must be Indian for citizenship by birth to be granted. It is on this very foundation that the demand for a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) was built, to legally identify and weed out so-called “infiltrators.”[1] In reality, its purpose is to strip Muslims and BJP opponents of their citizenship. The controversial cutoff dates were established precisely for this. It is this framework that the Modi camp has been desperate to implement since 2019.

Therefore, what the Election Commission is implementing is not merely a voter list revision, but a “citizenship verification” exercise. In other words, through the Election Commission in Bihar, the Modi regime is stealthily implementing the very same NRC that it has been unable to roll out nationwide due to massive public protests, legal challenges, and fierce political resistance.

Let us reiterate a crucial fact: the SIR notification issued by the Election Commission on June 24, 2025, is not limited to Bihar; it is a nationwide directive. This is not merely an advisory; the Commission has already issued orders for officials to begin preparatory work for the SIR in West Bengal, the next state slated for assembly elections.

The franchise and citizenship of Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, and BJP opponents are all in the crosshairs. Consider the implications: in Assam, where the NRC was implemented, nearly 20 lakh people, predominantly Muslims, were stripped of their citizenship. Imagine the catastrophic scale if this model is expanded nationwide.

This isn’t just a speculation or an exaggeration. The agenda was explicitly confirmed by the BJP’s National Spokesperson, Sudhanshu Trivedi stated that, “those criticizing the SIR want to steal Indian democracy for foreign infiltrators.” Moreover, the Election Commission’s own official guidelines openly authorises the following “if a person’s eligibility cannot be proved during the SIR, due to non-submission of requisite documents or otherwise, officials may designate them as ‘suspected foreign nationals.’”

It is from this very perspective that approximately 80,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Bihar have been trained and deployed into the field. The poison has already seeped into the public consciousness: many in Bihar are now being conditioned to view their Muslim neighbours who lack the specified documents as “illegal migrants” from Bangladesh, “foreigners,” and “suspicious individuals.” The toxic seeds have already been sown in the minds of the people. What is unfolding in Bihar today is a preview of what awaits the entire nation tomorrow.

The Implementation of SIR in Bihar

The SIR’s true purpose is now clear: to function as an equivalent of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Its implementation in Bihar exposes this intent very clearly.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has segregated Bihar’s 7 crore voters into two categories: the 4 crore voters enrolled before 2003, and the 3 crore voters added after. While the first category is required only to provide an old voter list copy (a document most have no means to obtain or preserve), the second category of citizens must produce one of 11 specific documents, which is near impractical for most people. For example, Sagar, who conducted extensive field research in Bihar after SIR’s implementation and wrote a long article in The Caravan magazine, says the following: “I met an elderly man over 70 years old. He said that he has been voting since 1970. But he did not have a copy of the voter list for that.”  This is the condition of voters even from the first category.

Those in the second category have to submit one of 11 documents specified by the Election Commission. This includes passport, caste certificate, high school graduation certificate, bank passbook, land (or) property certificate if any, identity card if any, pension documents, birth certificate, domicile certificate, etc. The Special Intensive Revision was announced on June 24 and within a month, 7 crore voters have to submit the above documents to prove their citizenship. [2]

On August 1, the Election Commission released the draft list. The final electoral roll will be published on September 30. This means that the entire process will be completed in just three months. (Even if all the government officials, employees and volunteers work without sleeping, it is not possible to verify the details of 7 crore voters within a period of three months, it will take at least one or two years, says Sagar.)

But most people in Bihar have not received these documents, and the Election Commission has not given any time to apply for them. It takes three to four months to apply for the above documents in well-functioning government offices; but many government offices in Bihar are dysfunctional, “only partially-built buildings and a place to stack hay”, says Sagar. In such a situation, how will people get these documents within a month?

According to government statistics, only 1.1% of people in Bihar know how to use computers; and people are severely affected not only economic backwardness, literacy, migration but also by natural disasters. More than 10 districts of Bihar which are located on the banks of rivers like Ganga and Koshi are often vulnerable to major floods. The Koshi river is called the “sorrow of Bihar” and causes huge damage and loss of life. The SIR, announced on June 24, demanded this documentation within a month, with a final list by September 30, a timeline that makes a genuine verification of 7 crore people a logistical impossibility. “The voting rights of rural people, the poor, women, and migrants have been put into question to a great extent,” says Sagar. Needless to say, this is almost the situation of the people not only in Bihar, but in many parts of the country!

According to the Election Commission’s official data, over 65 lakh of Bihar’s 7 crore voters have been disenfranchised through the SIR. In reality, the number is much higher – almost one crore – according to opposition parties and activists. The disenfranchisement has not been random or widespread across Bihar; the list of those disenfranchised/deleted from the roll show that it has been carried out in Muslim-majority areas and has been targeted at districts, constituencies and places where opposition parties like the RJD and Congress have historically won the most votes.

There is a total of 90,712 polling stations in Bihar. Of the total 65 lakh voters disenfranchised, 30 lakh voters – almost half of those disenfranchised – were disenfranchised in just 20,368 polling stations. The northeastern region of Bihar, comprising four districts of Purnia, Kathiawat, Araria and Kishanganj, is known as “Seemanchal”. This district, out of the total 234 assembly constituencies of Bihar, has 24 assembly constituencies and 4 parliamentary constituencies. Seemanchal is not only a region where Muslims, Dalits and poor working people live in large numbers, but it is also an area where parties like RJD and Congress have achieved huge victories before. Here, the majority of citizens, amounting to over 7,69,914 people, have faced deletions from the voter roll. Sagar says that in this region, awareness about SIR has not reached the people and the Election Commission data itself shows that a large number of people have not submitted their applications.

While the SIR was being implemented, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister (BJP) Samrat Choudhary, in an interview with The Indian Express, said: “The number of applicants seeking domicile certificates is increasing in Seemanchal; many of these applicants are immigrants from other countries. We suspect that many in Kishanganj [a district in the Seemanchal region] may have come from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Therefore, the central and state governments and the Election Commission should monitor whether illegal immigrants are living surreptitiously in India.” The Election Commission has fulfilled this order imposed by the BJP, by disenfranchising 7.34 lakh people in Seemanchal.

Another district with 6 assembly constituencies and 1 parliamentary constituency is Gopalganj, where more than 3 lakh people have been disenfranchised. Here too, the majority of those disenfranchised are Muslims and Dalits.

Similarly, there is a trend to be noticed where those who were removed on the grounds of “death of voters” are mostly below the age of 50. In over 80 polling stations in Bihar, half (50%) of those removed by this clause are well below the age of 50. In Bhagalpur, 50 out of the 58 people deleted from the voter list under one polling station are said to be dead. And they are below the age of 50. Moreover, the pattern of a large number of names being removed from a single polling station has also been exposed before.

Remember, all polling stations in India register a maximum of 1,000 to 1,200 voters. In one polling station called “Niranjana” in Gopalganj district, 641 people were removed at once. In a similar fashion, more than 200 people were removed in clusters from approximately 1,925 polling stations.

Apart from the deletion of voter names, some other irregularities and frauds have also been exposed. In districts like East Champaran and Kathiyar, the Election Commission has said that 200 to 389 voters reside at the same address. The scheme is now transparent: having previously been accused of inflating rolls with fake voters, the BJP regime is now using the SIR to legally purge millions of real voters who oppose it. The creation of a problem and its “solution” are two sides of the same coin.

The Election Commission: A Puppet of the BJP

As we have detailed, the mass disenfranchisement has been surgically targeted, constituency by constituency, at areas where opposition parties have historically won and where Muslim and anti-BJP votes are concentrated. This proves that the Election Commission has become a puppet of the BJP. As Parakala Prabhakar noted, “What we have is not the Indian Election Commission of India, but an election wing of the BJP.” Its actions in recent years have conclusively proven this.

Although the Election Commission has carried out various manipulations and irregularities in the BJP’s favour since 2014, the final nail to the coffin of its so-called ‘autonomy’ was struck in 2023. Last year, just months before the general elections, the BJP government passed a bill amending the law which governed the appointment of Election Commissioners. Specifically, it removed the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee, which previously included the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, replacing them with a Union Minister. This created a situation where the BJP government could hand-pick the Chief Election Commissioner.

The BJP pressured the then Chief Election Commissioner, who had a tenure until 2027, to resign. Subsequently, Rajiv Kumar and Gyanesh Kumar, who are loyalists to the ruling party, were appointed as election commissioners in succession.

Thus, having been thoroughly transformed into a puppet of the BJP, the Election Commission announced the elections in seven phases, a structure which conveniently suited Modi’s campaign tours and successfully executed the Special Intensive Revision. The phases were blatantly designed in states like West Bengal and Odisha to coincide extensively with Modi’s travel itinerary, with no credible justification or reason provided for this schedule.

During the 2024 general election campaign, Prime Minister Modi alone engaged in explicit anti-Muslim hate-speech at nearly 110 events. Yet, not a single notice was issued to Modi by the Commission. On the contrary, the Commission openly engaged in various conspiratorial actions against opposition parties, including imposing restrictions on them and freezing their bank accounts etc., Furthermore, as we have seen, the Commission has been complicit in various manipulations and acts of electoral fraud to ensure the BJP’s victory.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC), planned to be implemented nationwide, is poised to strip citizenship and voting rights from Muslims and those who oppose the BJP. As stated before, this NRC exercise will not only disenfranchise people but will also sow a deep, toxic division between Hindus and Muslims across the country. It will create changes that are potentially irreversible. This has already been set in motion in Bihar.

After all this, is there any basis to still believe the Election Commission is an “independent institution” or that the elections it conducts are “impartial”?

The Collusion with the Courts

With every major case, whenever the Supreme Court poses a few questions or voices some criticism of the Modi government, supporters of the INDIA alliance and the DMK’s online propagandists erupt in celebratory glee. They ride their imaginary high horses, claiming, “The Supreme Court has reined in the Modi government,” and “This is the end of Modi’s dominance” etc. etc., They actively foster an illusion without realising that the Court initially performs a drama of admonishing the Modi regime and then pretends to ostensibly defend the Constitution and democracy, only to ultimately deliver orders and judgments that consistently favour the ruling BJP government. This has become a deliberate tactic in recent times.

Regarding electoral manipulations and the NRC (National Register of Citizens) process, the Supreme Court and various High Courts have not merely been complicit but have actively aided in manipulations. When the Supreme Court declared electoral bonds unconstitutional, it did not question the electoral victories funded by that illegally acquired money. It did not even issue an order to confiscate the illicit funds from the political parties. This was a classic case of a half-hearted judgment, trying to kill the snake without breaking the stick. As a result, just before the 2024 general elections, a petition was filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) highlighting massive malfunctions and fraud in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and demanding that the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips be 100% counted, instead of just the votes recorded in the EVMs. The Supreme Court ruled that a 100% count was unnecessary, accepting the Election Commission’s arguments. Critics like Parakala Prabhakar argued that counting all VVPAT slips would, at most, delay the results by a single day, and that such a delay for the sake of electoral integrity was a negligible price to pay. Yet, nothing has changed.

The case challenging the 2024 Chief Election Commissioner Appointment Act is still dormant in the Supreme Court. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court may dismiss the case itself or declare the Act invalid “like election bonds”. It is too obvious to require proof that even if the latter happens, it will never declare the illegal actions of the Election Commission invalid. It is not surprising if the Election Commission completes the SIR across the country before the Supreme Court ‘wakes up from its slumber’!

The Supreme Court’s conduct in the SIR issue proves beyond a doubt how much BJP’s collusion is involved! The SIR being implemented is intended to exclude most voters instead of including them (mass exclusion instead of mass inclusion), as civil society organizations like ADR, PUCL and opposition parties have been arguing in the case. Initially, the Court reacted with indignation, suggesting it would not stand idly by if this happened. However, as time passed, it increasingly sided with the Election Commission’s arguments. While the Court accepted the Commission’s statement that Aadhaar Card cannot be cited as proof of citizenship, it entirely ignored the petitioners’ argument that 5 of the 11 documents listed by the Commission for the NRC also do not prove citizenship. It even refused to grant an interim stay on the NRC process.

Later, despite being directed by the Supreme Court to accept Aadhaar Card as the 12th document, the Commission has not made any amendment to the June 24^th original notification issued till date. We are aware that this is a nationwide directive. Even if Aadhaar Card is now nominally accepted in Bihar, it is questionable whether it will be accepted during the nationwide SIR! Since the Supreme Court has accepted the Commission’s argument that “Aadhaar cannot be accepted as proof of citizenship”, there will be no major change even if Aadhaar is accepted!

Thus, it is clear that the Supreme Court has given instructions in a very vague manner in favor of the Election Commission. The NRC is a blatant violation of Articles 324, 326, and 15 of the Constitution. Simultaneously, the Election Commission has no legal authority to intervene in matters of citizenship, which fall squarely under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Parliament. Although organizations like ADR shouted from roof-tops about these fundamental legal flaws, the Court paid no heed. The same Supreme Court that initially proclaimed it would not be a spectator to the mass exclusion of voters has, after the removal of 65 lakh voters, now issued an order praising the SIR process as “inclusionary and voter-friendly”! Furthermore, it has instructed opposition parties to “assist in enrolling missing voters” and to “not act irresponsibly”! If it wasn’t evident before where the Supreme Court stands, we now see their overt submission to the ruling party’s favour, at the expense of constitutional guidelines.

Although the Supreme Court has not yet delivered a final verdict in the case challenging the SIR, given all that has transpired, the eventual outcome is a foregone conclusion! After Modi came to power, the courts have gradually fallen into the clutches of the saffron fascist gang at a multifold pace. The Supreme and High Courts are doing the work of approving and condoning all the illegal and unconstitutional activities of the saffron-fascist clique. This fact is being obscured or trivialized, leaving only the myth of what the Courts are supposed to be, being spread to the populace. In order to deny and invalidate this central trend, the personal qualities and integrity of the judges are conversely being pushed forward. But the truth is that the Modi government is somehow putting all the judges to heel, for their own advantage.

The Conclusions Arrived by Ruling Class Intellectuals

The fascist clique, which has been steadily capturing every institution—the bureaucracy, the CBI, the military, and the courts—has now brought the Election Commission under its complete control, transforming it into a puppet. The Modi regime, which has been progressively curtailing the so-called  meager freedoms of speech, expression, and press freedom, is now openly snatching away the “right to vote,” often glorified as the “highest right in a democracy,” from the people before their very eyes. The scale of this destruction, unseen in Indian history, has left even the ruling class intellectuals terrified and trembling.

In this situation, certain intellectuals like Parakala Prabhakar, Avay Shukla, and Debashish Basu have, inevitably and logically, arrived at two stark conclusions:

• There is no use in relying on the Election Commission, the Modi government, the Supreme Court, or the opposition parties. No change will come from appealing or petitioning these entities!

• If Indian democracy is to be saved, there is no other way but to now boycott the elections and for the people to mass mobilize on the streets!

Their argument proceeds as follows: This illegally and fraudulently constituted Parliament and the Election Commission must be dissolved. Opposition parties must resign from their posts. The Commission must be scrapped, a new one established, and a new, integral voter list prepared; until then, opposition parties must completely boycott the elections altogether. They must boycott and take this demand directly to the people. All this might seem impractical right now, but the opposition will inevitably be forced to these conclusions one day; they have no other choice. This election is like a game in a casino. Do not be fooled by victories in states like Tamil Nadu and Telangana; that is how the gambling club makes you believe. Don’t look at where you are winning; look at what you are losing. You may win in some states, in some constituencies, but you can never capture Parliament. In the 2024 general elections, an estimated 5 crore votes were stolen; next time, it could be 10 crore, then 20 crore. Do not grant legitimacy to this fraudulent electoral process or the government it will produce by participating. Boycott it and turn to the people. Do not think that a boycott will allow the BJP to win an enormous majority; that will never happen—the people would laugh at them. If we fail to stop this now, the Indian Republic and Indian democracy will cease to exist. We will descend into a majoritarian, theocratic dictatorship.

– These are not our words, but the words of Parakala Prabhakar.

This conclusion of theirs does not spring merely from dissatisfaction or a lack of trust in the Election Commission or the Modi government, nor are they revolutionaries who are inherently dissatisfied with the electoral process itself. Rather, it is born from the realization that all existing constitutional institutions are being converted into instruments of fascism, and from the feeling that no other path remains to stop the Modi clique.

We reiterate: They are not revolutionaries; they are individuals with a perspective aimed at preserving this Constitution. They are trying to turn the wheel of history back to a time before 2014. However, the undeniable truth is that the conclusions they have now reached inevitably demand a nationwide rebellion and uprising.

The Position of the Opposition Parties

Setting aside the question of reaching such radical conclusions, the truth is that the opposition parties have not even mounted a robust fight against the electoral fraud and the SIR.

The INDIA alliance parties have reduced this issue to a mere tactic for winning the Bihar elections, rather than spearheading a nationwide campaign against it. While organizations like Parakala Prabhakar’s and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have been screaming themselves hoarse since the 2024 elections, the opposition parties have not heeded their words.

The Congress party, slowly rousing from a long slumber, largely due to efforts by figures like Rahul Gandhi, has only recently begun to address this. They have started speaking about the electoral theft in states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. Under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, their protests in Bihar have been limited to a “Voter Adhikar Yatra” and a few demonstrations outside Parliament. Apart from the Congress, parties like RJD, and Trinamool Congress, other INDIA alliance parties have not taken even this level of initiative. The DMK, ruling Tamil Nadu, seems content with issuing statements assuring that “nothing will happen in Tamil Nadu, we will take care of it.”

The constituent parties of the INDIA alliance, who initially demanded the complete scrapping of SIR, are now slowly diluted their opposition, especially after the Supreme Court’s order to include Aadhaar Card. It would be no surprise if they further degenerate into accepting the SIR, provided it is apparently conducted “without irregularities or glitches.”

Given this context, the electoral fraud on one hand and the disenfranchisement of anti-BJP voters on the other—where the election results were effectively stolen even before the polls, a boycott is the logical conclusion. However, when journalists raise this possibility, the RJD and Congress routinely dismiss it. The Congress states that “all options are open,” while the RJD pays lip service, asking, “What is the point of contesting then?” Other parties don’t even murmur about such an idea.

Furthermore, in an interview with Scroll, Amitabh Dubey, head of the Congress party’s research wing, issued a dire warning: “Although the INDIA alliance must decide on this, an election boycott will yield no benefits for the opposition; on the contrary, it might allow the BJP to secure over 90% of the seats. They could then easily change the Constitution entirely. Therefore, in my opinion, an election boycott is a terrible idea.” It would be no surprise if the entire INDIA alliance soon parrots Amitabh Dubey’s line.

He further indulges in this fantasy, stating, “there are many within the BJP and the NDA who respect Indian democracy. Therefore, we want to create pressure from within the BJP. We believe the BJP under the Modi-Shah leadership is different from the previous [old] BJP. We believe that old BJP has not completely vanished. So, one can hope that debates on this [electoral fraud, SIR] will arise within the BJP, and they [the old guard] might choose a different path.”

So, we are to believe there are voices within the BJP opposing the very electoral theft they orchestrate! That the Modi-Shah BJP is the bad one, while the old BJP was a believer in democracy! That internal pressure will make them retreat! The sheer absurdity of this argument is staggering!

Amitabh Dubey is not alone; various flatterers within the INDIA alliance are similarly boasting of this fantasy, believing that the Modi-Shah duo’s dominance within the BJP will simply end and that “something will happen.”

Why do they think like this? Because taking this campaign to a national level and calling for a boycott and street mobilization would elevate the anti-fascist struggle to a different dimension. The opposition parties do not want, and have never wanted, such a scenario. Why? For the INDIA alliance parties, anti-fascism simply means being anti-BJP; defeating fascism means removing the BJP from governmental power at the Centre. They want and campaign for the people to stop at merely voting for them. Their class interests lie in confining the anti-fascist struggle within the boundaries of their control, their desired limits, their self-interest, and, in short, within the walls of Parliament.

They are acutely aware that if the anti-fascist struggle transcends parliamentary limits and escapes their control, the people who gather on the streets today to fight fascism might turn against them tomorrow. Therefore, they will direct all their efforts towards reaching a compromise with the fascist clique and resolving this issue within the safe confines of parliament and the courts. Even if the electoral fraud and the SIR threaten their very existence, they will never dare to cross these self-imposed boundaries.

Say No to the Restoration of A Sham Democracy!
Let Us Forge A New Democracy!

The BJP-RSS clique is not stopping at electoral bonds, the Chief Election Commissioner appointment bill, electoral fraud, and the SIR. Its next phase is an attempt to amend Article 130 of the Constitution.

If this amendment is enacted, it would empower the central government to disqualify any Chief Minister, state minister, or Member of Parliament who has been in prison for more than 30 days. Opposition parties have been fighting these issues individually, treating them as separate, piecemeal grievances. But in truth, these are not isolated incidents. They are integral parts of a comprehensive plan to abolish India’s meager democracy and establish a fascist dictatorship. They are the stepping stones towards a Hindu Rashtra.

The so-called meager democracy, specifically electoral democracy, is being buried before our very eyes! In other words, the groundwork for a fascist dictatorship is being laid at full throttle! This is an undeniable truth. The courts, the Election Commission, other constitutional institutions, and the opposition parties will not save the nation from this danger. Constitutional bodies are being transformed into accessories and subservient battalions of the fascist project—a fact we have firmly established.

As we have also seen, the ruling class intellectuals are being pushed to the conclusion that there is no solution other than taking the anti-fascist struggle beyond the boundaries of elections and beyond the limits permitted by the INDIA alliance, onto the streets. There is no benefit for us in trying to perform a CPR on this electoral democracy which is on its deathbed, or in trying to turn the wheel of history back to the pre-2014 era. We want to push history forward! We gain nothing from restoring the crumbling faith in the parliamentary system and constitutional institutions. Unlike the ruling class intellectuals, we do not use these details and events for that objective. On the contrary, we want to shatter the illusions and faith placed in them. That is precisely why we use them!

By propagating that fascism cannot be defeated within the confines of elections and the constitution, and that a nationwide uprising is necessary, we are advocating for the necessity of an armed civil war, which would result in power passing into the hands of the people.

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Footnotes

[1] The so-called staunch enemy of fascism, i.e. the DMK party was in alliance with the BJP in 2003. Even though the DMK refused to accept this amendment many INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, RJD etc., were supported this. And this is the real face of the so-called ‘progressive’ and ‘secular’ parties!

[2] In the 1930s in India – when the British colonizers imported parliamentary in order to institutionalize and suppress the colonial resistance – only about 30% of the total Indian population had the right to vote, based on educational qualification and property rights. After the 1950 change of power, (i.e. the so-called independence) all adults (18 years of age) were given the right to vote. These 11 documents which are now mandated by the Election Commission are based on educational qualification and property rights. By making property rights and educational qualification mandatory for one to get the right to vote, the Election Commission has pushed the Indian electoral process back a 100 years – towards 1930, says Sagar. In the 1950s, there was mass inclusion due to colonization among other structural reasons; but in the 2020s’ Democratic India, we still find mass exclusion. This is how bourgeois intellectuals perceive this. It reflects the thinking of bourgeois intellectuals as an act of arrogance and arbitrariness by the saffron-fascist clique. At its first glance both seem paradoxical, but a deeper study shows both are identical. In the 1950s, when fascism was wiped out from the earth altogether and socialist, democratic, and revolutionary movements rose, the Indian Parliament needed this pretense. It could not have existed otherwise then. Now, when the proletariat is weak on the world stage and the fascist camp is gaining strength as a result of the capitalist crisis, it has become necessary to overthrow that pretense! It cannot exist otherwise now! Therefore, it is safe to determine that the basis of both the past and the present conditions is the interests of the bourgeoisie.