Guwahati: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (August 13, 2025) met with seven voters from Bihar who were erroneously declared “dead” by the Election Commission (EC) and removed from the state’s electoral rolls, calling the encounter a “unique experience.”
Speaking in a post on X in Hindi, Gandhi said, “There have been many interesting experiences in life, but I never got the chance to have tea with ‘dead people’. For this unique experience, thank you Election Commission!” He also shared a video of the meeting, in which he joked that the “dead” could not even buy tickets to travel around Delhi.
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The voters—Ramikbal Ray, Harendra Ray, Lalmuni Devi, Vachiya Devi, Lalwati Devi, Punam Kumari, and Munna Kumar—belong to Tejashwi Yadav’s constituency, Raghopur.
They reportedly discovered their names had been removed from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), part of the ongoing preparations for the November Bihar Assembly elections.
The group told Gandhi that they appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking restoration of their voting rights. The apex court is currently hearing petitions challenging the SIR process.
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In a statement, the Congress party said the seven voters were among only a small fraction identified through informal channels, as the EC has not publicly released lists of people marked “dead” or “migrated.” The party called the incident “political disenfranchisement in plain sight” and drew parallels with the recent “Vote Chori” controversy in Bengaluru, asserting that the SIR exercise in Bihar is compromised.
“This is not a clerical error. When the living are struck off as dead, the death certificate is issued to democracy itself,” the Congress statement said.