Bihar’s Assembly Election 2025: A day after Bihar voted in its first phase, optimistic news about the government’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is surfacing. Various reports on the first phase, witnessing a high turnout of Muslim women voters, indicate a possible impact of SIR on the Bihar elections.
According to reports, many women returned to Bihar from other states to vote in the first phase of the Assembly elections. Most of these women, who live with their families in other states, belonged to the Muslim community. They came back to cast their votes and ensure that their names were neither deleted nor duplicated in the voters’ list.
High Participation of Women in Muslim Majority Areas
According to ‘The New Indian Express’, Muslim-majority areas recorded significantly higher female voter participation compared with the 2020 Assembly polls. The report also quoted social activist Md Naqib from Sahebganj in Muzaffarpur. The report said that the rise in participation was clearer in rural areas. The SIR campaign encouraged women from minority and other communities to become more aware, not just about voting, but also about getting important documents like birth certificates for their children.
Muslim Women Voter Turnout in Hajipur
In Hajipur, the voter turnout of Mulsim women has increased by 30% from the 2020 election. It also reported a woman travelled from Kolkata to Bihar, spending Rs 10,000, just to vote in the Bihar election.
SIR and Bihar Election
Some women even travelled from Nashik in Maharashtra to Patna to cast their votes. For many of them, voting was a way to ensure their names remained on the voters’ list and their status stayed valid. The SIR initiative served as a reminder for women to step out, travel, and participate in the elections. The report also mentioned that over a dozen Muslim women returned from Gujarat, Kolkata, and Mumbai to vote.
