The Election Commission of India (ECI) has officially announced the schedule for the 2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. Voting will be conducted in two phases, with the first phase on 6 November 2025 and the second on 11 November 2025. The counting of votes is scheduled for 14 November 2025.
Amid this, a screenshot allegedly showing an article from the media outlet The Wire is circulating widely on social media (here, here, and here). The screenshot claims to feature a quotation from the Election Commissioner of India, named as Sukhbir Singh Sidhu, stating, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned me and Chief Election Officer Gyanesh Kumar to his office and told us to add a million fake voters across various constituencies in Bihar.” Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The Wire reported that PM Modi asked Election Commission officials to add a million fake voters in Bihar.
Fact: The Wire did not report or publish any article stating that PM Modi asked Election Commission officials to add a million fake voters in Bihar; the viral screenshot is fake. The screenshot contains notable discrepancies, such as mentioning the Election Commissioner as Sukhbir Singh Sidhu, whereas the official name is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. Further, there are no reports supporting this claim. Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor, and Seema Chishti, editor of The Wire, have both stated that the screenshot is a fabrication. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We noticed that the screenshot mentioned the Election Commissioner’s name as Sukhbir Singh Sidhu. However, on the official Election Commission website, the Election Commissioner’s name is listed as Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, not Sidhu.
We then conducted a Google search using relevant keywords, but found no credible reports from any organisation to support the claim. We also reviewed social media handles of ‘The Wire’ (here, here, and here) for any such posts but found none. Furthermore, we checked the archive of The Wire’s website to see if the article had been published and later removed, but found no evidence of this.
We also observed that the headline in the viral screenshot is unusually long, and the font used does not match the font on The Wire’s website. The screenshot features a “National” label, suggesting the article belongs to a “National” section; however, The Wire’s official website does not have such a section, indicating that the screenshot is likely fake or manipulated. A comparison between the viral screenshot, The Wire’s mobile view, and website can be seen below.
Talking to Boom, Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire, confirmed that the screengrab is fake. Seema Chishti, editor of The Wire, also called the article fake, stating, “The screenshot is a fabrication. The Wire has published no such story.”
To sum up, this viral screenshot claiming that The Wire allegedly reported that PM Modi asked the ECI to add fraudulent voters in Bihar is fake.
