Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Leader of Opposition in the Bihar assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, targeted the Election Commission of India on Saturday and alleged that his name was missing from the “draft electoral rolls” published as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process ahead of the upcoming assembly polls. The ECI, however, has rebutted the claim, terming it ‘factually incorrect’. Yadav claimed that nearly 65 lakh voters have been removed from the state’s draft electoral roll, ahead of upcoming assembly elections this year. The EC had released the draft voter list for Bihar on Friday, following a month-long special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.
“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,” he said.
“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,” Yadav claimed. At a press conference, Tejashwi connected his phone to a large screen and attempted to search for his EPIC number, which returned the message: “No records found.”
“My name is not there in the electoral roll. How will I contest the elections?” he asked.
EC refutes claim, shares draft roll copy with Tejashwi’s name
The EC refuted Yadav’s claim and said his name is there in the draft roll and is listed at Serial Number 416 in Digha Assembly constituency.
The EC also released a copy of the draft electoral rolls showing Yadav’s name, photograph, and details at serial number 416.
The row comes after the Election Commission was targeted by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and it refuted his allegations of electoral manipulation also.
‘Tejashwi lacks basic ability to search his name in list’
Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP leader Samrat Choudhary responded on X, accusing Yadav of lacking the basic ability to conduct a proper search.
“Your name is very much alongside that of your father, respected Lalu Prasad (Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo). You would do better to shut your shop dealing in fraudulent and false claims,” Choudhary said.
