The Election Commission has struck off nearly 50 lakh names from Bihar’s voter list, with the final roll published Tuesday showing 7.4 crore electors — down 6% from 7.89 crore on June 24 — after a three-month Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that invited criticism for resembling a citizenship check.

According to sources in the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer’s office, in addition to the 65 lakh names marked as deleted at the time of publishing the draft roll, another 3.5 lakh were removed while 21 lakh new electors were added. The final tally stands at 7.4 crore voters, a figure communicated to political parties during meetings with district collectors this afternoon, sources told The Indian Express .

The EC had on June 24 ordered an SIR for the whole country, but started with Bihar as A

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