Transgender voters in Bihar can enrol on the electoral roll in their own category, called "others" on the form. Since 2012, the Election Commission of India has allowed this. Still, no public source we could find gives a reliable count of transgender voters in Bihar today. This guide explains how recognition works, what the numbers elsewhere show, and where the facts run out.
It is background reading. It does not predict any election result, and it does not claim to know how any community will vote.
Key takeaways
- The Supreme Court ruled on 15 April 2014 that transgender people have a right to legal recognition of their own gender, including as a third gender.
- The Election Commission has let people register as "others" since 2012, according to a PTI report. Activists say many still stay off the rolls because they lack papers.
- We found no official or press figure for transgender voters in Bihar, so this article does not give one.
- Few openly transgender people have won elections in India. The best known examples come from Madhya Pradesh.
- The Patna temple proposal is a separate matter. Nothing we found shows it has any link to voter rolls or to an election plan.
Who counts as a transgender voter in India?
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from the sex they were given at birth. In India the word also covers communities such as hijra and kinnar. Many people use these words for themselves. The community's own terms should be respected, and people can differ on which one they prefer.
For voting, the question is simple. Is the person an Indian citizen, aged 18 or older, and living in the area? If yes, they can be on the roll. Gender only matters for how the entry is recorded.
What did the 2014 Supreme Court ruling say?
On 15 April 2014, the Supreme Court decided National Legal Services Authority v Union of India, often shortened to NALSA. According to a case summary by the Human Rights Law Centre in Australia, the court held that transgender people have a right to legal recognition of their self-identified gender. That includes male, female or third gender. The court also said that insisting on surgery before a person can declare their gender is illegal.
The court told the central and state governments to treat hijras and eunuchs as a third gender, to provide affirmative action in education and public jobs, and to run welfare schemes. The summary we read does not mention voter ID or electoral rolls. So we do not claim the judgment itself set rules for voting. People searching for "NALSA 2014 voting" will find many websites that say it did. We could not confirm that from the sources we opened. The full judgment is on the Supreme Court website for anyone who wants to check.
How does the electoral roll record transgender voters?
A PTI report carried by Orissa Post says the Election Commission has allowed transgender people to register as "others" since 2012. That is two years before the NALSA ruling. The same report says the "others" count stood at 38,325 voters at the time. It was up by 15,306 over five years. The page carries no clear date. It looks like it was written around 2019, so treat the numbers as old.
The wording has been argued over. Some activists feel the word "others" does not respect them and would prefer "transgender" or "third gender" on the forms. We did not find an official reply to that demand, so we say nothing more about it.
| Question | What the sources say | How sure are we? |
|---|---|---|
| Can a transgender person enrol as "others"? | Yes, allowed since 2012 (PTI via Orissa Post) | Reported by a news agency |
| Is there a national count of transgender voters? | An old PTI report gave 38,325 "others" voters | Old and undated on the page |
| Is there a current count for Bihar? | We found none | Not known to us |
| Does "others" match the NALSA wording? | Activists say it does not | A claim by activists |
Why do many transgender people stay off the rolls?
The PTI report quotes several activists. Anindya Hajra of the Pratyay Gender Trust said many transgender people lack documents, and that officials' attitudes and heavy paperwork push people away. Gauri Sawant of Sakhi Char Chowghi said many leave home young and have no birth certificate or address proof, and that getting these papers is slow and costly.
The News Minute made a similar point in Karnataka in April 2023. Manjamma Jogathi, a Padma Shri winner and Election Commission poll icon, said the Commission had not fully reached the community, and that problems with name-change certificates get in the way of voter ID applications. Taken together, these views suggest the roll may not show the whole community, but no source we found measures how big the gap is.
A worked example from Karnataka
The News Minute reported that the Election Commission website listed 4,468 transgender voters in Karnataka on 2 March 2023. On 29 March 2023, the Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, said 41,312 had registered out of an estimated 42,756 eligible. The two numbers are far apart for dates less than a month apart. It shows that numbers on the roll can depend a great deal on how the count is made and which date is used. Be careful with any figure that has no date.
| Karnataka figure | Number | Date or year |
|---|---|---|
| Transgender voters shown on the Election Commission website | 4,468 | 2 March 2023 |
| Registered, out of about 42,756 eligible (Chief Election Commissioner) | 41,312 | 29 March 2023 |
| Share of registered transgender voters who voted | 9.8 per cent | 2018 Assembly election |
| Share of registered transgender voters who voted | 11.49 per cent | 2019 general election |
The same article reports that only 9.8 per cent of registered transgender voters in Karnataka voted in the 2018 Assembly election, and 11.49 per cent in the 2019 general election. Those are Karnataka figures. They tell us nothing about Bihar, but they show why turnout and roll counts should be read separately.
What do we know about Bihar's voter rolls?
Bihar's roll was revised in 2025. All India Radio reported on 28 June 2025 that the Election Commission had started a Special Intensive Revision, covering about 7.89 crore electors across all 243 Assembly seats. Enumeration forms went to every elector. The report says volunteers would help the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities.
On 3 July 2026, the All-India Feminist Alliance wrote to the Commission. The Leaflet reported on 9 July 2026 that the group says women and transgender people were struck off revised rolls at higher rates than their share of the population. It names Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal. The Leaflet says the claim is the group's own and gives no figure for transgender people. We found no official answer to it, and no Bihar-specific number on transgender voters before or after the revision.
That is a real gap. Anyone who wants the number can ask the Election Commission or the Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar, for the gender-wise roll data.
How many transgender people have won elections in India?
Very few have, and the best-documented cases are outside Bihar. The Mooknayak, reporting in March 2024, describes these:
- Shabnam "Mausi" won a 2000 by-election in Sohagpur, Madhya Pradesh, and is described as the state's first transgender MLA. She later lost as an independent and left active politics.
- Kamla "Bua" won the Sagar mayor election in December 2009 as an independent, in a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste women. A district court declared her election void two years later, saying she had not proved she belonged to that group. The High Court upheld the decision. She died in 2019.
- Neha Kinnar stood as an independent in the 2018 Madhya Pradesh election at Ambah and finished second with 29,796 votes.
The same report says no transgender person had claimed any seat in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Bhopal activist Sanjana Singh told the paper that parties had not given tickets to active people from the community who wanted to enter politics. That is her view, and we did not find a reply from any party. A Pioneer report of 27 July 2026 says Sanjana Singh is contesting the Datia Assembly by-election in Madhya Pradesh, with a message of inclusion. We did not check the result or the polling date, so we make no claim about her chances.
We did not find a verified list of transgender candidates or winners from Bihar, so we do not name any.
Does the 2019 law change anything about voting?
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 deals with identity certificates, anti-discrimination rules and welfare. Our separate analysis of the 2019 Act explains it in plain words, including the main criticism that it has no reservation. We have not seen the Act set special voting rules. This is general information, not legal advice.
For the longer story of how rights were won, see the long road to equality. Our community and rights hub collects the related guides.
Where does the Patna temple proposal fit?
Only a little. On 29 July 2026, the Bihar State Transgender Welfare Board approved a proposal to build a temple for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Patna. PTI, in a report carried by ThePrint, said board member Ranjan Singh (spelled Rajan Singh elsewhere) made the proposal and said Modi had "given us respect and rights". Queerbeat reported on 21 August 2026 that board member Anupriya Singh called it Rajan Singh's personal agenda and said the 29 July minutes she saw did not mention a temple. Rajan Singh's account and hers differ, and we cannot settle it. See why the community is part of this story and what political parties have said.
No source we found links the proposal to voter rolls, to voter numbers, or to a plan for any election. Claims that the project "mobilises" transgender voters are not backed by evidence.
What we do not know yet
- How many transgender voters are on Bihar's roll today.
- How many were added or removed in the 2025 revision.
- Whether any openly transgender person has won an election in Bihar.
- How transgender voters in Bihar plan to vote, or whether a temple matters to them. No poll has been published that we know of.
A note on method. Every number above comes from a named report. If we could not open or confirm a source, we said so or left the claim out.
Common questions
Can a transgender person vote in India?
Yes. Any citizen aged 18 or over who lives in the area can enrol. Transgender people can register as "others" on the electoral roll, a choice available since 2012 according to PTI.
Did the NALSA ruling give transgender people voting rights?
The ruling gave legal recognition of self-identified gender. The summary we read does not mention voting, so we do not say it created voting rules.
How many transgender voters are in Bihar?
We could not find a reliable current figure. Ask the Election Commission or Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer for roll data by gender.
Has Bihar elected a transgender legislator?
We found no verified report of one. The best-known cases are Shabnam Mausi and Kamla Bua in Madhya Pradesh.
Sources
- Human Rights Law Centre: Indian Supreme Court recognises third gender (case summary of the NALSA ruling, 15 April 2014)
- Orissa Post (PTI): Activists blame Govt, EC for transgender voters' plight
- The News Minute: There are more transgender voters than ever in Karnataka (25 April 2023)
- The Mooknayak: Why not a single trans person stakes claim for any seat (23 March 2024)
- All India Radio: ECI begins Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar (28 June 2025)
- The Leaflet: Women and transgender voters being erased from electoral rolls, alliance writes to the Election Commission (9 July 2026)
- The Pioneer: Transgender leader Sanjana Singh broadens Datia bypoll debate (27 July 2026)
- ThePrint (PTI): Bihar transgender board approves proposal to construct temple in Modi's name (29 July 2026)
- Queerbeat (21 August 2026): report on the dispute inside the Bihar State Transgender Welfare Board, as summarised by our research team
Last checked on 24 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us through our contact page.