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New Delhi, August 11, 2025 – India’s opposition parties staged a protest in the capital on Monday, demanding the rollback of a controversial voter list revision in the eastern state of Bihar, where legislative elections are set for November. The demonstration, which began at parliament, saw hundreds of lawmakers and supporters march toward the Election Commission office, only to be stopped by police barricades. Dozens of lawmakers, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress, were briefly detained.
“This fight is not political but for saving the constitution,” Gandhi told reporters after his detention, asserting that the issue was evident to the entire nation. According to police officials cited by NDTV, over 200 people participated in the protest.
The opposition accuses the Election Commission of hastily revising Bihar’s electoral rolls, affecting nearly 80 million voter registrations. The process requires strict documentation, such as birth certificates, passports, or matriculation records, which critics argue could disenfranchise vulnerable groups, particularly minorities like Muslims, in Bihar, where literacy rates are among India’s lowest. The widely used Aadhaar biometric identity card is not accepted as proof for the revision, further complicating the process.
Opposition leaders, including Gandhi, have labeled the exercise as “institutionalised theft” aimed at denying the poor their voting rights. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dismissed the protest as a calculated move to create “a state of anarchy,” according to NDTV.
The controversy has raised concerns about electoral fairness ahead of Bihar’s crucial polls, with critics warning that the revision’s stringent requirements could exclude significant portions of the electorate.
