Ahead of Parliament’s Budget Session beginning Jan. 28, a damning audit report on the recent Bihar Assembly elections is set to reignite a nationwide debate on the credibility of India’s electoral process. Released by Vote for Democracy (VFD), Maharashtra, a collective of concerned citizens, the 27-page report lends fresh weight to the Opposition’s allegation that the electoral mandate in Bihar was “stolen” through systematic manipulation, allegedly carried out with the Election Commission of India (ECI) acting in concert with the ruling BJP.
Titled “The Bihar Verdict 2025”, the report is based entirely on official data released by the ECI, statutory law, constitutional provisions, and documented procedural anomalies. Its authors argue that what transpired in Bihar was not a series of administrative lapses, but a coordinated, multi-layered subversion of the democratic process.
TheVFD, under the guidance of former IAS officer and electoral reform advocate M.G. Devasahayam, along with Dr Pyara Lal Garg, Prof. Harish Karnick, and computer science expert Madhav Deshpande, reconstructed the election using official timelines and numerical records. Its central claim is stark: the outcome of the Bihar Assembly election was shaped well before polling day – and altered even after voting had concluded. The report claims that as many as 102 seats were effectively stolen, without which the NDA’s tally would have fallen well below 100.
Voter Roll Revision at the Heart of the Controversy
At the core of the report’s findings is the ECI’s decision to carry out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls on June 24, 2025, barely months before the Assembly polls. The move was unprecedented in both timing and scale, particularly in a state where electoral rolls have been under continuous revision since 2003 and where a Special Summary Revision had already been completed in Jan. 2025.
The ECI recorded no reasons, provided no empirical justification, and disclosed no transparent methodology for initiating such a sweeping exercise so close to elections. The authors argue that the SIR violated provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and fundamental constitutional guarantees under Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326.
Crucially, the report contends that the revision overturned a foundational principle of electoral law,shifting the system from a presumption of inclusion to a presumption of exclusion.
Mass Deletions and Implausible Numbers
Official ECI data cited in the report shows that Bihar’s electorate fell from 7.89 crore voters on June 24, 2025, to 7.24 crore by August 1, when the draft rolls were published – a deletion of 65.69 lakh names in just over a month. The final roll released on Sep. 30 listed approximately 7.42 crore electors.
Yet, the report notes that only 3.66 lakh voters were officially confirmed as ineligible, rendering the scale of deletions grossly disproportionate. In one of its most explosive findings, over 21.27 lakh voters were deleted in just three days between July 21 and July 25 – an administrative pace the authors describe as implausible by any standard.
During this period, 5.44 lakh voters were marked “dead,” 14.24 lakh “permanently shifted,” and the number of “untraceable” voters rose by 809% overnight. Despite illegal migration being cited as a justification for the revision, not a single “foreigner” was identified, the report notes.
The authors also flag glaring mathematical inconsistencies. While the ECI stated that around 17 lakh objections were received, changes reflected in the rolls affected nearly 22 lakh entries. Even after accounting for corrections, the final voter count should have stood at approximately 7.38 crore. Instead, the ECI declared 7.42 crore electors, leaving an unexplained surplus of 3.24 lakh voters.
Post-Notification Additions Raise Red Flags
Electoral norms require voter rolls to be effectively frozen once elections are notified. However, the report claims that Bihar’s electorate continued to grow even after notification – from 7.43 crore voters on Oct. 6, 2025, to 7.46 crore by polling day, and 3.34 lakh voters were added in just 10 days, including a sudden spike in youth voters – raising serious questions about the sanctity of the electoral rolls.
Beyond voter rolls, the report highlights broader structural concerns. The number of polling booths increased sharply – from 77,462 during the 2024 general elections to 90,740 in Bihar Assembly polls – without a corresponding expansion in remote areas. Constituency splits violated contiguity norms.
The EC’s decision to stop publishing constituency-wise turnout data before counting, releasing only fragmented district-level figures, is cited as another blow to transparency. On the ground, the deployment of nearly 1.8 lakh JeevikaDidis – beneficiaries of state welfare schemes – as poll volunteers blurred the line between welfare delivery and election administration.The report also documents a severe imbalance in Booth Level Agents, leaving large numbers of polling stations effectively unmonitored.
The ‘Midnight Hike’ and Razor-Thin Margins
The most alarming allegation concerns a uniform 0.18% increase in voter turnout recorded across all phases on the night of Nov. 12, 2025. This identical rise for both male and female voters added 1,34,145 votes and altered outcomes in nearly 20 constituencies.
As many as 21 seats were decided by margins of 0–15 votes, yet no automatic VVPAT recounts were conducted. The report notes that among these seats, 14 were won by BJP, five by JD(U), and one by LJP.
It highlights striking numerical coincidences: Kurhani (BJP) and Rajgir (JD-U) each recorded exactly 1,07,811 votes, while Kumhrar (BJP) and Islampur (JD-U) differed by just two votes. Similar razor-thin margins appear across multiple constituencies.
Further analysis of 10 additional seats shows vote differences of just 10-15 votes. Of these, seven were won by BJP and three by JD(U). Taken together, 30 seats recorded near-identical vote totals, with BJP winning 21, JD(U) eight, and LJP one. The authors argue that this overwhelming tilt towards a single party in ultra-narrow victories points to an underlying pattern that warrants serious scrutiny.
Additional red flags cited include CCTV failures, discarded VVPAT slips found on roads, unauthorised vehicles near strong rooms, and allegations that around 6,000 voters were transported from Haryana via special trains.
A Crisis of Electoral Credibility
The authors conclude that the Bihar 2025 election can’t be dismissed as a case of isolated irregularities. Instead, they describe a systemic breakdown marked by legal departures, administrative opacity, data suppression, and post-poll manipulation.
“What is at stake,” the report warns, “is not merely the outcome of one state election, but the credibility of India’s constitutional promise of universal adult suffrage itself.”
Meanwhile, controversies have also erupted in Maharashtra civic body elections, where new methods allegedly replaced the use of indelible ink. Videos showed voters purportedly removing finger marks with sanitiser or nail-polish remover. As opposition parties alleged voter fraud, State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare shifted from outright denial to damage control, promising a probe into the ink’s composition – particularly its silver nitrate content, and seeking clarification from ink supplier Kores.
Sharing a Midday article on X, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said: “Election Commission gaslighting citizens is how trust has collapsed in our democracy. Vote chori is an anti-national act.”
With Parliament’s Budget Session around the corner, the Bihar verdict and the Maharashtra civic polls have together become a national flashpoint, raising uncomfortable questions about the independence of India’s election institutions and the future of democratic accountability.