The opposition’s push to take its protest from the floor of Parliament to the gates of the Election Commission hit a snag Monday morning, as Delhi Police said no permission had been sought for the rally. The INDIA bloc insists the march is necessary to spotlight what it calls “blatant voter fraud” in Bihar.
A Protest Born in Parliament, Stopped at the Streets
The plan was straightforward, at least on paper. INDIA bloc MPs would step out of Parliament, walk to the Election Commission’s headquarters, and hand over their objections to the way voter lists are being revised in Bihar.
But Delhi Police threw in a hurdle: no official request, no green light.
Officers said they had “no record” of any permission application. That made the event legally shaky from the start.
Yet the political message had already left the chamber.
By Sunday evening, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was framing the protest as a fight for electoral integrity, saying the revision process was “tainted from the ground up.”
Allegations of Fake Forms and Duplicate Names
Singh’s accusations were blunt. He claimed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were filling “fake forms” in bulk from a single location instead of carrying out door-to-door verification.
“This is not voter roll clean-up — it’s voter roll contamination,” he told reporters.
Rahul Gandhi, he said, had presented data showing individual names repeated at different polling booths.
That’s not just sloppy list-keeping, in his view — it’s a deliberate attempt to influence the rolls.
One specific demand was simple but politically loaded: make the voter list electronic, and allow software to scan for duplicate EPIC numbers. The INDIA bloc says that’s the only way to see exactly how many ballots are linked to the same ID.
Bihar’s Timeline Questioned
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process is not new in Bihar. Singh reminded the press that the last major revision in 2003 took nearly two years to complete.
For opposition leaders, the state’s political stakes explain everything. Bihar is one of the big battlegrounds for the next cycle of assembly polls, and any change in voter rolls could tip the balance.
The Police Response and Political Spin
Delhi Police’s statement was short but firm — protests without prior permission are violations of law and order protocols.
Officers said there was no official request from the INDIA bloc for the rally route or crowd size.
That technicality now sits at the center of the dispute.
Opposition leaders are calling it an excuse to stifle dissent, while the police maintain it’s standard procedure.
The BJP, predictably, sees this as theater. Party spokespersons have pointed to past revisions and argued that the current exercise is routine and “legally sound.”
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Opposition says: revision is flawed, names are duplicated, and BLOs are bypassing verification rules.
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Police say: no permission, no protest.
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BJP says: nothing to see here.
Numbers, Records, and the Bigger Picture
The Election Commission’s data shows Bihar has over 7 crore registered voters. A revision, even under normal timelines, is an enormous administrative lift.
In 2003, officials processed around 50 lakh applications for additions, deletions, and corrections.
If Singh’s one-month timeline claim is accurate, that would mean officials are expected to handle similar volumes in just a fraction of the time.
| Year | State | Duration of Revision | Applications Processed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Bihar | 24 months | ~50 lakh |
| 2025 | Bihar (proposed) | 1 month | Data not yet available |
Critics say that pace almost guarantees errors. Supporters counter that digitization and new verification tools make the process faster.
Inside the INDIA Bloc’s Strategy
This protest isn’t happening in a vacuum. The INDIA bloc has been looking for sharp, high-visibility issues to unite its diverse members ahead of the next general elections.
Voter fraud allegations, especially in a politically sensitive state like Bihar, fit the bill.
Party insiders say the plan to march was as much about optics as it was about policy.
Even if the police blocked it, the headlines were guaranteed.
That calculation seems to be paying off — television panels have been debating the issue since Sunday night, while social media feeds are flooded with videos of opposition MPs accusing the government of “electoral sabotage.”
Where This Leaves Bihar’s Voters
For the average voter in Bihar, this fight might feel distant, but its outcome could shape who gets to vote next year.
Duplicate names, if left unchecked, could mean disenfranchisement for some and double votes for others.
And while Delhi Police’s refusal has turned the protest into a procedural spat, the underlying question remains: is the voter roll clean enough to trust?
That’s a question neither side seems ready to let go — and one that could set the tone for a tense election season ahead.
