India, July 27 -- The political tussle over the controversial Bihar electoral drive escalated on Saturday with the Opposition calling it a ploy to help the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) win the upcoming state polls and the ruling coalition hailing it as a democratic exercise aimed at weeding out ineligible voters.

The first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) concluded on Saturday, and an Election Commission bulletin from Friday indicated that nearly 6.5 million names might be excluded from the draft electoral roll due to death, duplication, permanent migration, or non-submission of forms.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) questioned the legitimacy of the drive, saying that it was aimed at reducing the votes of people from t...