Foreigners among 78 million voters in Bihar? Tejashwi Yadav calls it poll body's drama ahead of assembly election

Ahead of the Bihar assembly election, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav dismissed the ongoing reports claiming the presence of foreign voters in Bihar's electoral rolls. He called such reports "mutra" (urine). While speaking at the Mahagathbandhan press conference, Yadav was reacting to inputs reportedly received by the Election Commission that fake voters from Bangladesh and Nepal were present in the state.

"The commission says they got inputs or 'sources' (sutra) about this. These are not sources, they are 'mutra,'" Yadav said. Yadav also questioned the legitimacy of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and alleges serious flaws in the process.

Recently, the poll body released a press note saying that 80 per cent of voter forms had been submitted in Bihar. The RJD leader responded to this saying, "Even my own form has not been collected. Forms are being thrown around, and in some places, they're even being used to sell jalebis."

"The Election Commission says documents can be submitted later, but no official SOP has been issued. There are server issues, OTP problems, and technical complaints that are being ignored. It appears this entire exercise is an eyewash," Yadav added.

"In 52 seats last time, the victory margin was just 5,000 votes. If this continues, around 3,200 votes could be cut per constituency," he added, alleging that voters who have migrated out of Bihar could be unfairly removed from the rolls.

Your Aadhaar Card is NOT your citizenship proof?

Ahead of the assembly elections scheduled for October-November, voters in Bihar are restless after the Election Commission said that Aadhaar is not a document to prove Indian citizenship. Meanwhile, on Thursday (July 10), the Indian apex court asked the EC for the reason behind the declaration. A judge on the bench hearing the plea of voters around the proof of citizenship in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in Bihar said.

The SC bench then questioned the timing of the exercise, which began late June. The bench observed that if the EC decided to take away the voting right, then that person has to appeal against the decision and “go through this entire rigmarole and thereby be denied his right to vote in the ensuing election”.

The court asked the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar, voter ID card, and ration card as valid documents during the verification drive.