"SIR has become a national issue, confident that Mahagathbandhan will win Bihar polls": Congress' Manickam Tagore

New Delhi [India], October 7 (ANI): Exuding confidence in the Mahagathbandhan's victory in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Tuesday said that the state will be freed from the "proxy rule" of the RSS on November 14.
Speaking to ANI, Tagore highlighted the rampant corruption in Bihar and noted that its wealth is being wasted.
He said that the people will vote for change, and following Rahul Gandhi's Voter Adhikar Yatra, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has become a national issue.
"November 14th will be the day where the state of Bihar will be freed from the proxy rule of RSS...Bihar has the highest unemployment rate in the country...Corruption is at its peak...The wealth of Bihar has been wasted...The people of Bihar will vote for change. Rahul Gandhi took out a vote adhikar yatra, SIR has become a national issue...We are confident that the Mahagathbandhan will win the Bihar elections," Tagore said.

Earlier on Monday, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Bihar Assembly elections. The 243 Assembly seats will go to the polls in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with counting of votes to be held on November 14.
Apart from announcing the schedule for the Bihar assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar decided to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday criticised the Election Commission (EC) for not having the "courage and integrity" to tell the country on how many foreigners were actually removed from the Bihar voter list, despite stressing on the need to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for cleaning the voter list.
"If the EC had told about the alleged non-citizens being removed from voter list, it would have been "even more exposed than it already is", the Congress leader said.
"Much was made of the need of the SIR exercise to remove non-citizens from the electoral roll. The EC has not had the integrity or the courage to enlighten the country on how many such non-citizens in Bihar were removed from the electoral roll. If it had done so, it would have been even more exposed than it already is", Jairam added.
In these elections, the NDA will be up against the INDIA bloc, led by Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, the Congress, the CPI (ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the CPI, the CPM, and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP). This time, Bihar will also see the entry of a new player in the form of Prashant Kishor and his party Jan Suraaj.
The total number of electors in the final list stands at 7.42 crore, while there were 7.89 crore electors as of June 24 this year. An Election Commission press release stated that 65 lakh voters were removed from the draft list, and the number of electors in the draft list as of August 1, 2025, stood at 7.24 crore.
It stated that ineligible electors removed from the draft list stood at 3.66 lakh, while 21.53 lakh eligible electors were added to the draft list (Form 6), taking the total to 7.42 crore voters.
Over 1.63 lakh electors have been added in 14 assembly constituencies in Patna, according to the district administration.
In Madhubani district, 85,645 voters have been added after the draft publication. After disposing of the claims and objections received, there has been an increase of 56,423 voters in the seven constituencies of the Nalanda district. (ANI)