Modi government accused of erasing Muslim and Dalit women from India’s voter rolls
Congress says India’s ruling BJP is disenfranchising millions of Muslim and Dalit women through mass voter deletions in Bihar
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — India’s main opposition Congress party has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and the Election Commission of orchestrating the large-scale removal of women voters in the eastern state of Bihar, calling it an attempt to manipulate future elections.
At a press briefing in New Delhi, Congress women’s wing chief Alka Lamba alleged that the names of nearly 2.3 million women had been deleted from Bihar’s voter rolls during a recent review process.
Most of those affected, she said, belong to marginalized Dalit and Muslim communities. Dalits, once known as “untouchables” under the Hindu caste system, make up some of India’s most economically and socially oppressed groups.
“This is not an administrative error — it’s a deliberate conspiracy,” Lamba said. “The Election Commission, acting under political pressure, has targeted poor women who voted in large numbers against the ruling party.”
The deletions reportedly occurred during what the Election Commission calls a “Special Intensive Revision” of voter lists, a process meant to update rolls before the next state elections.
According to Congress, the highest number of removals were in the districts such as Gopalganj, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Bhojpur, and Purnea — areas that saw closely contested races in the 2020 assembly polls.
Lamba claimed that the deletions were concentrated in nearly 60 constituencies where the opposition INDIA bloc narrowly lost to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance. “When these same women voted in last year’s national election, were their votes fake?” she asked. “If not, why are they suddenly missing from the rolls now?”
Congress leaders allege that the move is part of a broader strategy by the BJP to suppress minority and opposition-aligned voters while simultaneously appealing to women through cash transfer schemes and welfare programs. “On one hand, the government claims to empower women; on the other, it erases their right to vote,” Lamba said.
The opposition party has launched a nationwide campaign titled “Save Our Votes,” seeking millions of signatures to demand a judicial inquiry into what it calls “vote theft.” Analysts say the controversy could further strain the credibility of India’s election machinery, once considered among the most independent in the world.
Have Your Say!
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@soundvision.com.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a Muslim Network TV’s representative. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
Tweet: @MuslimNetworkTV
We must take charge of our narrative. Research indicates that 92% of their Muslim coverage is negative. Help us change that.
