Rahul Gandhi’s latest shocker: Why does 947 voters live in the same house in Nidani village, Bihar?

Bihar’s electoral rolls continue to be questioned by the Congress as they point out further discrepancies. The latest claim by the party alleges that 947 voters from the Nidani Village of Bodhgaya were all listed as living under the same house number.

Local authorities and the State’s chief electoral office had to clarify, saying that the house numbers were “notional” since the residents living in the village rally didn’t have any house numbers.

In a post on X, the party pointed out that 947 voters all listed as living under house No. 6 in Nidani. The post said, “In the official voter list, 947 voters live in the same house (House No. 6). Reality? Nidani has hundreds of houses and families, but in the list, the entire village has been crammed into one fictional house."

The party questioned, “How did the BLO conduct door-to-door verification? Why were the real house numbers removed from the voter list? Who is benefiting from this?”

the party said that the mistake was not ordinary and called it a “mockery in the name of transparency.” They said that when house numbers are erased, it becomes easy to hide fake voters, duplicates, and ghostly identities.

“If 947 voters in a small village can be 'dumped' at the same address, imagine the scale of irregularities in Bihar and across India. As Rahul Gandhi ji keeps saying – "Democracy is being stolen." Nidani is a living proof of this,” the party claimed.

The post also asked for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Gupta to respond, asking, “Does the entire Nidani village really live in one house, or is this a new way to loot democracy?” the party demanded accountability.

Rahul Gandhi reposted the tweet saying, “See the EC’s magic, an entire village settled in one house.”

In response to the claims, the Gaya district administration shared a post with four clips from villagers. The post said, “ In many villages, house numbers are not allotted, due to which symbolic house numbers are given in the voter roll. The voters mentioned are all present in the village and are genuine voters. Voters from Booth No. 161 of Nidani village are themselves clarifying the situation,”

In one of the videos, a resident said that the village Nidani, Booth no 161, was being defamed and that the claims were wrong. He said that they were satisfied with the survey done by the election commission and that there were no house numbers in 161, as it was a village. Another resident by the name of Rinki Kumari said that she was a voter and that her name is not on the voter list and clarified that there are no house numbers in the village.

The Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer’s office also made clarifications regarding the issue, saying that the notional numbers in villages were only created for convenience in villages, slums, or temporary settlements where houses do not have formal numbering systems. They said, “In many villages, slums or temporary settlements, houses do not have permanent house numbers. In such cases, the BLO (Booth Level Officers) physically visits the area and assigns a serial number (like 1, 2, 3…) to each house. This number is only for convenience in listing and to record voters in proper order. It is used for voter identification and to prepare the voter list in an orderly manner.”