Citizenship on the Move: Electoral Administration, Ordinary Residence and Circular Migration in Bihar

This paper examines the relationship between internal migration, ordinary residence, and electoral administration in India, with particular attention to Bihar and the 2025 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It focuses on the administrative difficulties that arise when citizens maintain electoral connections with their places of ordinary residence while spending substantial periods elsewhere for work or livelihood. Using Buxar Assembly Constituency as a focused case, the paper analyses official electoral-roll data from the 2025 revision, including changes between the January roll, the SIR draft roll, and the proposed final roll, as well as claims and objections filed during the revision process. It places these findings within India's legal framework governing ordinary residence and electoral registration and engages with existing scholarship on internal migration, migrant political participation, and electoral exclusion. The paper argues that electoral administration must distinguish between temporary or circular mobility and a genuine change in ordinary residence. It does not treat changes in electoral-roll numbers as evidence of migrant exclusion by themselves. Instead, it highlights the need for clearer administrative procedures and stronger empirical investigation into how mobility affects citizens' ability to maintain and exercise electoral rights. The paper is an independent research study and should be read as a working research paper.