The political atmposphere is intensifying as the assembly elections approach in the poll-bound state of Bihar. After disinformation about “vote theft” and bogus accusations of disenfranchising voters via the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, the recent uproar stemmed from a report alleging that there were multiple attempts to erase nearly 80,000 Muslim voters in the state.
The report which was written by Ayushi Kar and Vishu Narayan and published by a proprganda outlet called “The Reporters’ Collective” on 28th September claimed that the plan was underway in the Dhaka constituency located in the East Champaran district.
However, these assertions were busted soon after the final voter list was released on 30th September. Data from the Election Commission revealed that merely 17,631 votes were removed throughout the entire SIR process in the Dhaka Assembly.
It was noted that from a total of 344,000 voters, 327,000 were issued their forms. The voters whose names were eliminated comprised deceased persons, migrants and absentees.
The Election Commission did not specifically target Muslim or Hindu voters. All of these voters were removed following the appropriate procedures. Additionally, booth-level agents only submitted requests to eliminate ineligible voters.
बिहार में SIR पर Reporters Collective ने फैलाया भ्रम, 80 हजार मुस्लिम वोट काटने का मचाया हल्ला
— OpIndia.tv (@OpIndia_tv) October 2, 2025
भाजपा पर लगाया आरोप, Final Voter List आते ही ध्वस्त हुए दावे
सोरोस से फंडिंग लेता है प्रोपेगेंडा पोर्टल Reporters Collective@ritikachandola से जानिए पूरा मामला pic.twitter.com/BK8PQ6HLQl
Outrageous claims in the report
The report insisted that official submissions were filed to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar and the district officer (Electoral Registration Officer or ERO) of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in order to have these Muslim voters removed.
It alleged, “One submission was made in the name of the personal assistant of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s MLA from Dhaka, Pawan Kumar Jaiswal. The other was made on the letterhead of the BJP’s state headquarters in Patna, documents reviewed by us reveal.”
The report then declared that they were able to conclide that “it was a systematic and targeted attempt to single out and delete Muslim voters en masse in the Dhaka constituency.” It charged that the ECI officials did little to stop those who tried to deny Dhaka’s population their right to vote on a wide scale.
The report alleged that during SIR drive the ECI “midway decided that the people would have to only get their names filled on the enumeration forms and the documentary evidence could be provided to them subsequently.” It even cast doubt on the ECI, its officials, Booth-level officers and volunteers employed by the board as “untrustworthy.”
“We accessed all these petitions filed by the BJP to the district Electoral Registration Officer, ECI’s official in charge of the district. All of those the BJP wanted deleted were Muslim,” the report stressed. It accused that the BLA signed each petition on behalf of the party but did not specify why it wanted these names removed which is a requirement.
The report accused Dhiraj Kumar who is BJP leader and Dhaka MLA’s personal assistant was accused in the report of asking to remove 78,384 Muslim voters’off the voter list for the Dhaka seat.
The report stated, “A letter was sent on the BJP state headquarters letterhead to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) at Patna. The CEO is the Commission’s most senior official in a state,” repeating the same demand.
Despite the shocking allegations made by the media outlet, the voter list from Dhaka has shattered the fragile narrative. Additionally, the fact that no political party lodged a complaint with the Election Commission regarding the SIR drive, despite the falsehoods spread by their leaders and the confidence displayed by their workers who worked in close association with the electoral body throughout the process, also deflates the bubble of their propaganda.
Who founded “The Reporters’ Collective”
The medis house was established by Nitin Sethi and Kumar Sambhav Srivastava and is affiliated with the Global Investigative Journalism Network. It obtains financial support from the Open Society Foundation, Ford Foundation and KAS in addition to securing money from various other networks.
The KAS Foundation in Germany also provides financial assistance to CSDS. The latter grabbed the headlines when its director Sanjay Kumar disseminated inaccurate information regarding the Maharashtra elections. He apologized, however, the lie had already circulated like wildfire and was also utilised by the Congress party to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party.
