The revision of the electoral roll in India's Bihar state has sparked controversy with critics and opposition parties warning of voter disenfranchisement.

Sita Devi, a daily wage laborer from Nalanda, a district in India's northeastern Bihar state, has had a tough time gathering the necessary paperwork for inclusion in the draft electoral rolls.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) gave voters in Bihar just weeks to prove their eligibility to vote ahead of a July 25 deadline.

"I submitted my application on time but when I followed up, I was told my details were incomplete," Devi told DW. "Now, I am running from pillar to post just to get my voter ID included before the deadline."

Registration revamp triggers disenfranchisement fears 

About 200 kilometers (124 miles) away, Ram Kishan, a farmer from Bihar's Gopalganj district, has spent weeks running between government buildings and the local election office to submit his application in time.

"Officials keep asking for more documents. I have all these, but still, my name has not been added to the voter list," Kishan told DW. "Without this, I fear I will not be able to vote in the upcoming elections."

The ECI announced the revision of the electoral rolls in June ahead of upcoming polls scheduled for November, which involves reverifying the records of nearly 80 million registered voters.

Why is Bihar's electoral roll being revamped?

The ECI said the "intensive revision" was needed to remove the names of deceased individuals, those who have permanently moved and duplicate entries — as well as avoiding the "inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants."

Members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have long claimed that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighboring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India's electoral rolls.

Bihar is one of India's largest states by population, making it a key election battleground. The outcome of November's assembly elections can impact the balance of power in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament, where voter strength and coalition math are critical.

'Voters unlikely to have required documents'

People who were registered in 2003, the last time scrutiny of the voter list took place in Bihar, may submit a copy of their registration.

But everybody else — around 30 million people, according to ECI estimates — are required to provide documents to establish eligibility, including proof of citizenship. The electoral commission has specified 11 documents for this purpose.

A vast swath of Bihar's rural population lacks the necessary documentation, and obtaining alternatives like domicile or caste certificates has proven difficult.

Challenging the electoral commission in India's top court

Bihar's main opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has challenged the ECI in the Supreme Court, along with other parties and critics of the Bihar voter roll revision operation.

"It is being used to justify aggressive and opaque revisions of electoral rolls that disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor [Indian] migrant communities," the court petition read.

"They are not random patterns but ... engineered exclusions."

India's top court has allowed the special intensive revision in Bihar to proceed, but expressed concern over its timing and fairness, urging the ECI to adopt a more inclusive approach to documentation.

Yogendra Yadav, national convener of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, a civil campaign collective, said the burden of proof has been reversed.

"This is the first such instance in 22 years where the onus of getting their names on the list has been placed on the voter and where voters have been asked to furnish documents to prove their citizenship," Yadav told DW.

"Instead of election officials ensuring eligible citizens are registered, voters must now submit fresh applications and documentary evidence of citizenship."

Nearly 2 million left off Assam citizens' list

Jagdeep Chhokar of the Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO known for its work on electoral and political reforms, has challenged the special intensive revision.

Chhoka said the Bihar revision is "arbitrary and unconstitutional" and "risks disenfranchising millions of voters, particularly the poor and marginalized."

"If it is not stopped now, it will disrupt the electoral process," he said. "If someone is not proven to be a citizen, he can also be deported. This is very dangerous," he added. 

Nearly 2 million people were excluded from the final citizenship list in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, which was published in 2019, effectively rendering their political and legal status as Indian citizens unclear.

What has the BJP said?

India's ruling BJP has emphasized the importance of the election commission's registration revamp, which is set to be applied nationwide.

"This must be done," BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told DW.

"It is a routine and legal exercise aimed at cleaning the voter list and weed out non-voters. In the upcoming election, we want Indians to vote, not outsiders."

The ECI said the draft electoral rolls will be published on August 1 and voters will have until September 1 to make claims and objections. The final electoral roll is set to be published on September 30.

The Supreme Court has scheduled its next hearing for July 28.