Bihar Legislative Assembly Elections, 6 and 11 November 2025

Floods (July–August 2025) 

The Indian state of Bihar is set to hold elections to its state legislature on 6 and 11 November 2025 (The Hindu 2025a). In preparation, the Electoral Commission of India (ECI) tasked state officials with embarking on a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in order to remove duplicate registrations, illegal immigrants and deceased voters. The ECI set a deadline of 1 August to publish the first draft of the revised electoral roll, giving Bihar officials just 5 weeks to verify the citizenship of all the state’s 80 million registered voters (Kumar 2025b). To complete this process, 100,000 booth-level officers, supported by 400,000 volunteers and party nominated agents, went door-to-door to check the identification documents of Bihar’s residents (The Hindu 2025b). This initiative has drawn criticism as, despite the huge task of verifying Bihar’s votes, the ECI did not hold any public consultations on the subject before announcing the project (Purohit 2025). 

However, Bihar was hit with severe flooding in late July, leaving thousands of residents at risk of displacement and wiping out thousands of acres of crops (Koul 2025), particularly in the north of the state (Bishnoi 2025). Relentless rain and erosion by the River Ganga exposed the vulnerability of Bihar’s infrastructure, as evidenced by the collapse of several bridges (Bihar Times 2025). The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red warning for extremely heavy rainfall over parts of Bihar, warning that low-lying areas were at risk from the enhanced rainfall activity brought on by an active monsoon coupled with multiple cyclonic circulations over eastern India (Patna Press 2025). 

By early August, the humanitarian situation was deteriorating as the Ganga River rose at 1cm per hour, beaching the danger mark at the state capital, Patna, among other locations. The Katariya and Kosi rivers were also in flood, closing roads and triggering evacuation efforts (Orissa Post 2025). 

Impact on Electoral Processes 

The flooding in parts of Bihar posed challenges to election officials’ ability to travel across the region and to locate registered voters. Rising water levels made travel by boat and via motorways increasingly dangerous. Booth-level officers reported that they faced difficulties completing the verification process but, as of 22 July 2025, successfully verified 96% of voters (The Hindu 2025b) and, as of 1 August, published the first draft of the revised electoral roll. However, political figures opposed to the systematic revision of voter rolls alleged that the continuation of the exercise during extreme weather made residents have to choose between finding shelter and risking their lives to protect their identification documents needed for verification (Chaurasia 2025). Patna- Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Leader Tejashwi Yadav questioned the EC’s sudden decision to revise Bihar’s voter list in 25 days, calling it a conspiracy to disenfranchise the poor and marginalized voters through an abrupt and impractical voter list revision process in an attack launched on the Bihar government and the EC. It was pointed that there are logistical and humanitarian challenges around the planned action, especially considering floods affecting nearly 73% of the area (Kumar 2025a).   

Although there have not been changes to procedures announced yet, elections for four vacant assembly seats in Bihar in 2024 were delayed until after flood season (UNI 2024).