PATNA: Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, on Saturday, claimed that his name was missing from the revised draft electoral rolls released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday.
Tejashwi held a press conference in Patna where he claimed his name was missing from the revised electoral rolls. “How can I contest election if my name is missing from the electoral rolls?” he asked.
To drive home his point, the RJD leader displayed his Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number and entered it into the poll body’s official mobile application, which showed a ‘no records found’ error.
In response to a media query, he said, “How can my wife’s name be there when my name is missing from the voter’s list?” He, however, admitted that a Booth Level Officer (BLO) had visited his residence and obtained all details regarding the revision of electoral rolls.
Tejashwi further said, "EC used to mention how many people have shifted to other places, how many people are deceased, and how many people have duplicate names, but in the draft voter list provided to us by it, they have cleverly not given the address of any voter, no booth number, and no EPIC number, so that we cannot find whose names have been deleted from the voter list.”
The former Deputy Chief Minister also said that the EC did not provide reasons for the deletion of names from the voter list, calling it the "Godi Commission."
Tejashwi’s statement created a flutter in political as well as administrative circles.
Patna District Magistrate Dr Thiyagarajan SM swiftly refuted the allegations levelled by the Opposition leader and shared details of Yadav’s electoral records.
Patna District Magistrate-cum-District Election Officer Dr Thiyagarajan SM said on X, “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, Patna. It has been clarified that the name of the Leader of the Opposition is registered in the draft voter list.”
"Currently, his name is listed at polling station number 204, the library building of Bihar Animal Sciences University, with serial number 416. Previously, his name was recorded at the library building of Bihar Animal Sciences University, polling station number 171, with serial number 481," he added.
Meanwhile, JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar, by showing Tejashwi's name on the draft voter list, said that the “political fraud had been caught in the magistrate's checking.”
However, Yadav stuck to his guns and raised a fresh claim that while his name may exist on the rolls, the EPIC number had been changed. “I would like to know how the administration managed to change my EPIC number in the draft electoral rolls,” he said, reported PTI.
When asked about this specific allegation, Patna DM Shirshat Kapil Ashok clarified that the EPIC number in the current draft rolls was the same as the one Yadav had submitted during the 2020 Assembly elections. “If he is in possession of more than one EPIC, then it is a matter of investigation,” he said.
Deputy CM and senior BJP leader Samrat Choudhary also shared a screenshot showing Tejashwi’s name and photograph in the voter list, along with that of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. In a post on X, Choudhary said, “You lack the qualifications to do a proper search and find your name, which is very much there... You would do better to shut your shop dealing in fraudulent and false claims.”
State minister and BJP leader Nitin Nabin went a step further, demanding that Tejashwi apologise for allegedly possessing more than one voter ID and “committing fraud”.
Tejashwi, who has recently hinted at boycotting the upcoming Assembly elections, reiterated that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process was flawed and lacked transparency. “With 15,000–20,000 deletions in almost every Assembly segment, the EC has saddled political parties with the Herculean task of independently verifying wrongful deletions before the claims and objections period ends on September 1,” he said.
In a related development, CPI(ML) Liberation state secretary Kunal informed the media that his party had sent a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar. The letter flagged that in the reserved Bhore Assembly seat of Gopalganj district, at least 12 living individuals had been wrongly listed as deceased and removed from the rolls — out of 78 names shared with parties as deletions.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
