by Vikas Kumar
After the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in Bihar, the final list of voters has been released on 30 September. According to it, there are a total of 7.42 crore voters in the state. As of 24 June 2025, there were 7.89 lakh voters in Bihar. The Special Intensive Revision process began on 25 June. 47.77 lakh voters have been deleted in the process, which was conducted in two phases over a period of three months.
In percentage terms, the deleted names account for 6.05% of the total number of voters.
So far, the Election Commission hasn’t released district-wise data for deletions. The Quint has sourced district-level data from the administration in different districts.
We found that the highest deletion rate was in Gopalganj district. Here, 12% of people’s names were removed from the old voter list. The lowest was in Arwal district, where 3.38% names were deleted. Now, let us analyse the number of voters in all 38 districts of Bihar before and after the SIR process, and see whether names were deleted more in any specific region.
Higher Deletion Rate in Districts With Higher Muslim Population
Looking at the numbers released after the Special Intensive Revision in Bihar, it becomes clear that the deletion rates are comparatively higher in districts with a higher proportion of Muslims.
For example:
In Kishanganj, where the Muslim population is 68%, 9.69% of voters’ names were deleted
In Katihar with a Muslim population of 44%, 7.12% names were deleted.
In Purnia, the Muslim population is 38%, and 8.41% voters were removed from the voter list.
7% Names Deleted in Seemanchal
In Bihar, the four districts of Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar, and Araria are considered the Seemanchal region. Compared to other districts, these have a higher Muslim population. In Seemanchal, the rate of voter deletions was higher than in other districts.
Before SIR: 78,11,890 voters
After SIR: 72,27,172 voters
Names deleted: 5,84,718
This comes to about 7 percent of all the voters in the region. Another important data point is that 12 percent of all deleted voters were in Seemanchal.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.