Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav claimed that his name had been erased from the state’s draft electoral roll on Saturday. He also claimed that about 65 lakh voters have been removed from the state’s draft electoral roll ahead of the assembly elections scheduled this year. The Election Commission of India had released the draft voter list for Bihar yesterday after a month-long special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.
Tejashwi told reporters that he had filed the enumeration form during the special intensive revision rolls in Bihar. “ How will I revise the electoral rolls in Bihar? “How will I contest the upcoming elections he asked.
He also attempted to verify his voter's details using his Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number, but failed to retrieve his information from the EC online portal.
"Almost 20 to 30 thousand names have been removed from every assembly constituency. A total of around 65 lakh voters, or about 8.5% of the total, have had their names removed from the list. Whenever the Election Commission issued an advertisement, it would mention that many people had shifted, many were deceased, and many had duplicate names... But in the list provided to us by the Election Commission, they have cleverly not given the address of any voter, no booth number, and no EPIC number, so that we cannot find out whose names have been removed from the voter list," he said.
The ECI, however, rebutted the claim and called it factually incorrect. The commission said that Tejashwi’s name appears in the draft roll at serial number 416.
Patna district magistrate and district election officer Dr Thiyagarajan SM said on X that "It has been learned from some news sources that the name of the leader of the opposition, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, is not included in the draft voter list for the special intensive revision. In this regard, an investigation was conducted by the district administration of Patna. It has been clarified that the name of the leader of the opposition is registered in the draft voter list."
Also, according to the Election Commission sources, the EPIC number Tejashwi used was invalid. The poll body has also launched an investigation into his claims, and sources have said that an FIR will be registered against the deputy chief minister of Bihar if he is found to be in possession of two voter ID cards.
JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar, showing the name of Tejashwi on the draft voter list, said that the "political fraud had been caught in the magistrate's checking."
Tesjashwi’s claim comes a day after Rahul Gandhi also made a similar accusation against the Election Commission. “Votes are being stolen. We have open-and-shut proof that the Election Commission is involved in this vote theft. And I'm not saying this lightly, I'm speaking with 100% proof. And when we release it (proof), the entire country will come to know that the Election Commission is enabling vote theft. And who are they doing it for? They're doing it for the BJP," he said to ANI.
The Election Commission called the accusations baseless and said that it had reached out to Gandhi in June via email and a formal letter, but got no response.