‘We are alive’: Bihar villagers find themselves marked dead on draft voter list ahead of polls

With less than a month left for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections, at least five residents of Batsar village in Dhoraiya block were shocked to discover that they had been marked as “dead” in the draft voter list. On Friday, the villagers from booth number 216 submitted a memorandum to BDO Arvind Kumar stating, “Sir, we are alive.” The names of those affected are Mohan Sah (Serial No. 2), Sanjay Yadav (Serial No. 175), Ramroop Yadav (Serial No. 211), Narendra Kumar Das (Serial No. 364) and Vishnvar Prasad (Serial No. 380).

Accompanied by social worker Indradev Mandal, the men expressed concern that the clerical mistake could deny them their voting rights. Responding to the complaint, BDO Kumar instructed the Booth Level Officer to complete Form-6 to correct the records and assured that every eligible voter would be allowed to cast their vote. A similar incident was earlier reported in Dumri village of Bagahi Panchayat in Champaran, where 15 individuals were wrongly listed as “dead.” Ironically, names of deceased persons such as Sonia Sharan, who passed away in 2018, and her son Manit Mani, who died in February 2025, still appeared as active voters. In some cases, people who had died as early as 2016 continued to remain on the rolls. The Bihar Legislative Assembly elections for all 243 constituencies will be held in two phases - on November 6 and 11 - with vote counting scheduled for November 14.