PATNA, June 28 -- The opposition Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance (GA) in Bihar on Friday strongly criticised the Election Commission of India's (ECI) latest move to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, calling it "undemocratic" and alleged that the exercise was a covert attempt to snatch citizenship of the poor and oppressed, and, in turn, rig the upcoming assembly elections by disenfranchising millions of Bihar voters. The GA partners during a meeting in Patna also questioned the 25-day time-frame set for the exercise, saying that it was impossible to cover the whole state within such a short span. "Is it possible to conduct house to house verification of around eight crore voters within 25 days by the ECI in Bihar? The last SIR was done in a period of two years. If, indeed, it is possible, I would challenge the Centre to get the caste census done in two months flat. This is why we get a smell of conspiracy about the conduct of SIR just before the polls. It is an attempt to snatch citizenship of people of Bihar in big numbers, especially poor and oppressed classes by making them first ineligible to vote and then deprive them from ration card, scholarships, government schemes, etc. Chief minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a role in it," alleged leader of the Opposition, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, while addressing a joint presser with top GA leaders that included AICC member and senior Congress leader Pawan Khera, CPI-ML (Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, in Patna. The GA leaders announced that a delegation of the INDIA bloc would soon meet the Election Commission of India (ECI) officials to raise the issue of impracticality of conducting SIR just two months before the state polls and also setting conditions of providing documents like birth certificates, matriculation certificates to establish one's place of birth and/or date of birth. The SIR in Bihar, under which the voters' list would be prepared after house to house verification of voters from June 25 to July 26, is being done after 22 years as the last such exercise was done in 2003. Bihar has 7.80 crore (78 millions) voters as per the updated voters list published on January 7, 2025. "Our delegation will soon meet the ECI and raise the issues pertaining to the SRI like condition of providing documents to establish place of birth/ date of birth of parents of voters born between 1987 to 2004 and later. How can people in such big number procure documents like birth certificates and other documents? We will also ask why the SIR is being done in Bihar when polls are so near and monsoon season has arrived when 73% of the state remains affected by the floods," Yadav said, a point also supported by Bhattacharya and Khera. "The SIR is an attack on one's citizenship. PM Modi is known for pulling 'masterstrokes'. This SIR is a master stroke indeed as Bihar is a laboratory and such exercises would be done across the country. This is a conspiracy to make youths, poor, OBCs and Dalits ineligible to vote and also deprive them from benefits of different government schemes," Khera said. He also questioned that why does the ECI need to conduct a fresh electoral poll exercise when it must be having voter date of 2024 Lok Sabha polls. "Did the ECI not have any data of voters in 2024 polls? If not, they should first declare the 2024 parliamentary polls invalid," said the senior Congress leader. State Congress president Rajesh Kumar too echoed similar views. ML's Bhattacharya, who wrote a letter to the EC voicing his opposition a day ago, claimed that the proposed exercise would be a "logistical nightmare". "Why did not the EC tell us about SIR when workshops were being held recently for booth level agents in New Delhi for Bihar polls? Why did they keep this exercise under wraps or was this done as an afterthought? If that is so, it is highly objectionable and it is nothing short of murder of democracy," he said, adding that the GA would not accept the SIR at any cost. In order to illustrate stark flaw in the ECI move, Tejashwi quoted government data. He said that it would be nearly impossible for millions of voters to provide documents like birth certificates, educational certificates in Bihar where registration of births and literacy rate are low. "In Bihar, there are 59% of voters (estimated 4.76 crore out of around 8 crore voters) who are in the age group of 20-40 years of which around 85% (20-38 age group) of them have to give documents of their parents. Data shows that the issuance of birth certificates from 2001 to 2025 is 2.8% while NFHS-2 data shows that only 10-13% of the population in Bihar in the age group of 40-60 years has done matriculation or attained higher education. How will millions of people in Bihar from rural areas get birth certificates in the next 25 days?" Yadav asked. He also questioned why the ECI not considering aadhaar card as a primary document for registration in voting list. However, the leader of the Opposition did not specify what the GA plans to do in case the ECI does not accept their objections about SIR. "First, we plan to meet the EC officials and would like to get replies to our concerns and objections. We want to be transparent. Then we will take further steps. We will let you all know about it," said Yadav. CPI's Ram Babu Kumar CPM's Arun Mishra and Dev Jyoti from Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) -- all constituents of the INDIA bloc -- too expressed their views and said the GA would not accept SIR at any cost. "This is akin to conducting the National Register of Citizens (NRC)," said Dev Jyoti, senior VIP leader. The Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar Vinod Singh Gunjiyal, could not be reached for comments, despite efforts made by HT. There was also no official statement issued by the state election department over the objections raised by Mahagathbandhan over the SIR till late evening....