Written by Santosh SinghPatna | Updated: October 1, 2025 04:25 AM IST 4 min read“Bhagwan ka shukr hai mera naam reh gaya voter list mein. Aadhaar card se hi kaam ban gaya (Thank god my name is in the final electoral roll. The Aadhaar card was all that I needed),” an elated Mukesh Kumar, a 40-year-old driver who lives in Chitkohra locality in Patna’s Digha Assembly segment, told The Indian Express on Tuesday.Ahead of the November Assembly elections and after a three-month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state, the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday published its final electoral roll for Bihar containing the names of 7.42 crore electors. According to the EC’s draft roll for Bihar, published on August 1, the state had 7.89 crore electors. Voters who had registered after 2003, when the last intensive revision was held in the state, were required to submit one of the 11 documents the EC had mandated to prove their eligibility, including citizenship.Since Mukesh’s name was missing from the 2003 electoral rolls — though he was 18 years old in 2003, he was unable to get enrolled as a voter that year — he had told The Indian Express during a conversation in August this year that he was required to submit an identity proof despite enrolling as a voter successfully before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and voting regularly since.Then came the shocker. Mukesh, who has studied till primary school and lives in a thatched house in the state capital, discovered that the only identity cards he possessed — an Aadhaar card and a driving licence — were not among the 11 documents mandated by EC for the SIR exercise, which kickstarted in Bihar in the last week of June.“Though I was happy to make it to the draft roll, my heart sank when I saw the list of documents put out by the EC. After calling up nearly 15-20 people, I decided to approach the Booth Level Officers (BLO) for help,” he says.Mukesh recalls going to the village school, where the BLO had set up a temporary office, to ask if his father’s bank passbook would work as a proof since it contained his residential address. Informed that none of these documents would suffice, a dejected Mukesh was advised to apply for a residential certificate instead.“The BLO suggested that I apply for a residential certificate. However, the heavy rush of applicants for this document and the nature of my job, which keeps me on the move, rendered me ineligible.”Story continues below this adEventually, he returned to the BLO with photocopies of his Aadhaar card and his father’s passbook. “Those documents were all I had to offer as supporting documents. The BLO kept these photocopies, but did not offer any assurances. I kept meeting and calling him at regular intervals for updates. Then, one day, he told me, ‘Chinta mat karo ab. Supreme Court ne Aadhaar allow kar diya hai (Don’t worry. The SC has allowed Aadhaar card now)’.”With the SIR exercise triggering concerns over its potential to disenfranchise large numbers of electors, petitions were filed in the SC on the procedure, among other issues. Although the top court did not stay the SIR exercise, it directed that Aadhaar be included as the “12th document” to establish proof of identity for the revision.“I have voted in all Lok Sabha and Assembly elections since I enrolled as a voter in 2004. I cannot describe what I went through during the last two months. Thanks to the SC, I can still vote. Had this (Aadhaar cards as proof of identity) been allowed since the beginning of SIR, thousands like me, who only have Aadhaar cards as identity proofs, would have been spared this mental agony,” he says.Santosh Singh is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express since June 2008. He covers Bihar with main focus on politics, society and governance. Investigative and explanatory stories are also his forte. Singh has 25 years of experience in print journalism covering Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Bihar Assembly electionsPatna