The run-up to the first phase of polling in Bihar on November 6 witnessed the Election Commission of India (ECI) furiously defend the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the Supreme Court, even as petitioners questioned the poll body’s claim that the current exercise is a chip off the “transparent” 2003 intensive revision of the State’s electoral rolls.

The final list, published on September 30 at the end of the SIR, witnessed the removal of 3.66 lakh names. Opposition parties have questioned the SIR exercise, and demanded the ECI come out with reasons for the exclusion of these names.

But the ECI order of June 24 had stated that the SIR was done only after political parties had raised concerns about inaccuracies in the electoral roll. It had justified that the SIR was necessary due to m

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