Hello,
In a startling breach of protocol, the Election Commission of India (ECI) failed to deploy its advanced de-duplication software during Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter roll, allowing lakhs of suspect duplicates and over a crore of erroneous entries to slip into the final list. This revelation, uncovered by The Reporters’ Collective, exposes systemic lapses that could undermine the integrity of upcoming elections in the state.
The software, honed since the 2016 National Electoral Roll Purification (NERP) initiative, uses machine learning to flag similarities in names, relatives, ages, addresses, and even EPIC photos. Integrated into the ERONET platform by 2018, it was routinely activated for polls—like the 2024 Lok Sabha elections—successfully purging fakes in states such as Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Yet for Bihar's SIR, a high-stakes 30-day sprint announced with tech-savvy fanfare, ECI sidelined it entirely.
Top ECI officials in Delhi and four Bihar Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) confirmed to reporters Ayushi Kar and Vishnu Narayan that no access was granted to state teams, nor were suspect lists shared for verification. Focus shifted to frantic document collection amid public backlash, leaving manual booth-level checks as the sole safeguard—woefully inadequate for a 7.7 crore-strong electorate.
The fallout? The finalised rolls for Bihar's 243 assembly seats harbour 14.35 lakh suspect duplicates, including 3.4 lakh exact matches across demographics. Worse, 1.32 crore voters from diverse backgrounds were bizarrely clustered—up to 650 per household—at phantom addresses, hinting at mass fraud.
Attempts to probe further met stonewalling. Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer, Vinod Singh Gunjiyal, dodged questions in a tense Patna showdown, invoking the Model Code of Conduct to intimidate: "Consider this before reporting." Neither he nor ECI headquarters responded to emailed queries.
This omission isn't just procedural—it's a democratic red flag. With Bihar's polls looming, unchecked ghosts on the rolls threaten fair play. ECI's discretion over such tools demands scrutiny; transparency must trump convenience.
Read The Collective's latest report by Ayushi Kar and Vishnu Narayan here: ECI Skipped its Fraud-Busting Software, Flooding Bihar Voter Roll with Lakhs of Suspect Duplicates
We could not have done it alone. We are a determined team, but we face a severe financial crunch. This project became possible due to your generous donations, support, and suggestions. Please support us so that we can continue our investigation into the poorly-conducted SIR and seek accountability from the powerful.
Warm Regards,
Mayank Aggarwal
Editor
The Reporters’ Collective