Hyderabad MP and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of “silently bringing in NRC” in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections.
According to Owaisi, the new rules for voter registration in Bihar are so strict that they could end up disenfranchising thousands of poor and marginalised citizens — especially Muslims and Dalits in districts like Seemanchal.
In a post on X, Owaisi said, “The Election Commission is implementing NRC in Bihar through the backdoor. To get registered in the voter roll, every citizen will now need to produce documents not just of their own birth, but also of their parents’. How can flood-affected people of Seemanchal show such papers?”
He called the move “a cruel joke” on the poor, pointing out that even official data shows only 75% of births are registered in India — and that government records often have errors.
The NRC — National Register of Citizens — is a controversial exercise meant to verify citizenship. It was last conducted in Assam, where 19 lakh people were excluded from the final list in 2019, leading to fear and confusion, especially among Muslims and Bengali-speaking communities.
Owaisi warned that these new voter rules could lead to “mass disenfranchisement” and damage the credibility of the Election Commission. “It will break people’s trust in the democratic process,” he said.
So far, the ECI has not linked voter ID changes to NRC. But opposition parties like Congress and RJD have also raised concern, asking for clarity and protection for vulnerable voters.
