Why exclusion of women voters in Bihar should worry Nitish Kumar

The number of registered women voters in Bihar has fallen below their share of population after the special intensive revision of voter lists by the Election Commission, shows Scroll’s analysis of final voter lists published on September 30.

The fall is acute in constituencies won by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) in the 2020 Assembly elections.

Nitish Kumar’s support among women voters is believed to be one of the reasons for the National Democratic Alliance’s electoral success in the 2020 elections.

The alliance, which is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the JD(U), won 125 of the 243 seats.

The exclusion of women is evident in the gender ratio of the electorate, which measures the number of women for every thousand men among registered voters.

In January 2025, the gender ratio of the Bihar’s electorate was 914 – that is, for every thousand registered male voters, Bihar had 914 registered female voters.

After the SIR, this figure has fallen to 894.

This is lower than the state’s gender ratio. According to the 2011 census, Bihar has 918 women for every thousand men.

Disproportionate exclusion of women

Women voters made up 47.8% of Bihar’s electorate on January 1, 2025. In the final roll after the special intensive revision, this decreased to 47.2%.

Nearly 59% of the voters deleted during the SIR...

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