Nishant Kumar, Pawan Singh among NDA nominees for Bihar Legislative Council polls
The BJP and JD(U) have each announced four candidates for the polls.
RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav’s claim that his name was not in the voter list appears to have backfired with the BJP accusing him of electoral fraud ahead of assembly polls.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, BJP MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Sunday criticised the RJD leader for trying to mislead the public by falsely claiming that his name was missing from the Bihar voter list.
“In an attempt to spread misinformation, Tejashwi Yadav read out an EPIC number — RAB2916120 — during a press interaction and claimed that his name was not showing up anywhere, alleging that his name had been deliberately removed and democracy was in danger. He accused the ECI and the NDA government of depriving him of his voting rights,” Patra said.
However, the BJP leader stated, Patna DM and the Election Commission of India refuted his allegations and clarified that his name is very much present in the voter list.
The poll panel had also shared the details of his valid EPIC number associated with his voter ID.
Referring to this, Patra pointed out that the EPIC number Tejashwi used to search his name in the voter list was different from the one he mentioned in his 2020 election affidavit.
“The EPIC number that Tejashwi Yadav read from his voter ID – RAB2916120 – does not match the one he had submitted in his 2020 Assembly election affidavit, which was RAB0456228. How does he have two different EPIC numbers?” asked Patra.
The BJP leader further asked Yadav if he has two voter ID cards.
“Does Tejashwi Yadav have two voter ID cards?… This is not a small matter. This is a grave electoral offence and a blatant attempt to tamper with the Election Commission’s records,” Patra stated.
He wondered, “If a leader like Tejashwi Yadav holds two voter IDs, what must be the situation among his party workers?”
He also suggested that this was the reason the RJD and its allies were so vehemently opposing the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
“Is this the real reason why they are opposing the SIR exercise? Has SIR exposed their network of bogus voters?” he asked.
The scathing remarks of the BJP leader come a day after Tejashwi Yadav alleged that his name was not present in the voter list when he checked in the official mobile application of the poll panel.
However, the ECI had refuted his claim, asserting that the RJD leader’s name is very much there in the draft voter list. The poll body also shared the draft voter list, which shows Yadav’s name.
As per the ECI, Yadav’s name appeared with serial number 416, house number 10, and EPIC number RABO456228. The commission further stated that Tejashwi Yadav might have used an old EPIC number in the mobile application, and that could be the reason his name didn’t show in the list.
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