Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav today claimed that his name had been omitted from the state’s draft electoral roll. The Election Commission of India (ECI), however, has firmly rebutted the claim, terming it “factually incorrect”.
Mr Yadav claimed that nearly 65 lakh voters have been removed from the state’s draft electoral roll, ahead of assembly elections scheduled this year. The Election Commission yesterday released the draft voter list for Bihar, following a month-long special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.
“My name is not there in the electoral roll. How will I contest the elections?” he asked.
The poll body countered by saying that Mr Yadav’s name does appear in the draft roll, listed at Serial Number 416. The row comes just days after the Election Commission was forced to respond to separate allegations of electoral manipulation made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Mr Yadav further attempted to verify his voter details using what he claimed was his Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number — a unique alphanumeric code printed on voter IDs — but allegedly failed to retrieve his information from the Election Commission’s 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,” Mr Yadav claimed.
According to Election Commission sources, the EPIC number Mr Yadav was quoting is invalid. Sources said that a preliminary verification suggests the possibility that Mr Yadav might be in possession of two different voter ID cards.
The poll body has launched an investigation into Mr Yadav’s claims, with sources adding that an FIR will be registered against the former deputy chief minister of Bihar if he is found to be in possession of two voter ID cards.