PATNA, July 16 -- CPI-ML (Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Tuesday alleged that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar had turned chaotic, with booth level officers (BLOs) failing to reach a majority of voters or visit households thrice as claimed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) before the start of the exercise. Addressing a press conference, Bhattacharya said the SIR had become a tool to disenfranchise lakhs of voters who are unable to furnish documents to prove their citizenship. "A majority of voters do not possess documents like birth certificates or matriculation certificates. Even obtaining a permanent residence certificate has become difficult due to the slow and complicated online process. So, when the ECI demands documents after the draft rolls are published, how will the people prove their citizenship?" he asked. MLC and senior CPI-ML leader Shashi Yadav claimed that women voters were the most affected, as many lacked documents prescribed by the ECI to establish their date or place of birth. "Most women don't have names on property records or birth certificates. What documents are they expected to produce? This is sheer harassment," she said. Bhattacharya also questioned the inclusion of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) among the 11 prescribed documents for voter verification, despite the Bihar Assembly passing a resolution in 2021 against the NRC. "Why is the NRC listed at all, when no such exercise has been carried out in Bihar? This gives rise to suspicion that the SIR is a proxy NRC in the state," he said. When it was pointed out that NRC was included with a caveat-"wherever applicable"-Bhattacharya countered that its mere mention raised doubts about the larger intent behind the revision. "What is the logic of including the NRC as a valid document?" he asked. He also slammed recent media reports claiming that the SIR had identified voters from Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Nepal. Citing unnamed ECI sources, he termed such reports "planted" and "misleading," aimed at justifying the flawed SIR process. "If illegal immigrants were indeed present in large numbers, why weren't they found earlier? In 2019, the ECI informed Parliament that only three foreigners were detected in the electoral rolls. The issue never came up during the last general elections. But suddenly, after the 2024 polls where the BJP won only 240 seats, illegal immigrants are being made a big issue," he said. Bhattacharya further alleged that the SIR was introduced as an afterthought once the BJP-led NDA sensed potential losses in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, especially after its underwhelming performance in the 2024 general elections....