As preliminary vote-count trends show the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) well ahead in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, Congress leader Udit Raj has pinned the party’s weak showing on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, declaring in a social-media post that “SIR is moving towards victory”.
Roll revision in spotlight as votes pour in
According to early counting figures, the NDA is leading in a significant number of seats, suggesting a comfortable position in the 243-member Bihar Assembly. Data show the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leading on 69 seats, the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) on 67, and the Lok Janshakti Party (RV) (LJP-RV) on 14, while the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and its allies trail behind.
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Against this backdrop, Udit Raj pointed to the SIR exercise as a factor behind the Congress’ underperformance: “SIR jeet ki taraf badh rahi hai,” he wrote on X.
The Congress leader also told ANI, "SIR is leading. I won't say that this victory is of the BJP-JD(U); this is a victory of the Election Commission, of SIR. After the voter list was sanitised, lakhs of discrepancies were pointed out, but the EC didn't respond to even one. When objections were being raised, 89 lakh objections were raised. Still, EC said that nobody is raising any complaint. When they stoop to this level of cheating, what can we say? This is murder of democracy...If you delete the names of Opposition voters and send back thousands of voters despite them having digital slips...there was a wave of change in Bihar...BJP leaders were chased away by people at several locations. So, how are they winning? I feel this is a victory of SIR."
The SIR (Special Intensive Revision) is a systematic exercise by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to update, verify and re-enumerate eligible voters in a state ahead of elections. In Bihar, it involved door-to-door enumeration and scrutiny of electoral rolls for over 7 crore electors.
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While the ECI asserts such revisions strengthen the integrity of the vote, critics claim that the timing and manner of the SIR may affect who ends up on or off the rolls, particularly in a high-stakes poll scenario. For the Congress, Udit Raj’s comment suggests they view roll revision as tilting the electoral terrain away from them.
As the ballot counting unfolds, the interplay between seat counts, voter-list changes and political narratives is coming into sharp focus.
