As the opposition and BJP are trading charges against each other on the poll body’s drive to revise electoral rolls in Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday issued a notice to Congress leader Pawan Khera for getting himself registered in the electoral roll of more than one constituency in the national capital. The New Delhi’s District Election Officer shared a copy of the notice issued to Khera on X. According to the notice, Khera is enrolled as a voter in New Delhi and Jangpura assembly constituencies. The Congress leader has been directed to reply to the notice by 11 am on September 8.
The notice came on a day when the BJP alleged that Khera had two voter IDs and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was running a campaign against voter-roll revision in Bihar to "protect and hide" his party's "theft of votes". Khera hit back at the BJP saying in a bid to target him and his party, it has ended up targeting the ECI and left it "bleeding".
"The @DEO_NDD has issued me a notice. Yet another confirmation of how the @ECISVEEP functions to support the ruling regime. While our complaints of Vote Chori are disregarded, the ECI rushes to act against opposition members," he said in a post on X."Why did the @ECISVEEP not issue a single notice to the 1,00,000 fake voters of Mahadevapura constituency, that were exposed by Rahul Gandhi? We will not stop exposing the EC's wrongdoings in the Bihar SIR and other election processes," the Congress leader added.
Khera claimed that with his "morning stunt", BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya has "conceded"
that the EC has "failed to maintain the integrity" of the electoral rolls.
In a post on X, Malviya said Gandhi screamed "vote chori" from the rooftops but just like "he forgot to mention that his mother, Sonia Gandhi, enlisted herself in India's voter list even before becoming an Indian citizen, it has now emerged that Khera, a Congress spokesperson — who never misses a chance to flaunt his proximity to the Gandhis — holds two active EPIC numbers".
Reacting to Malviya's post, Khera said, "I came to know from him only that I have a second EPIC card. I had applied to remove it in 2016-17, but it seems that did not happen and the EC is to be blamed for this."
"What Anurag Thakur did, Amit Malviya replicated — they both wanted to target us, but ended up targeting the EC. This is the issue we have been raising, this is what Rahul Gandhi is saying. Now I want to know if my vote was misused in Delhi and went to the BJP. I want CCTV footage," the Congress leader said.
"It has been brought to my notice that you have got your name registered in the electoral roll of more than one constituency," read the notice. "As you may be aware, that being registered in the electoral roll of more than one constituency is a penal offence under the Representation of People Act 1950. You are therefore, directed to show cause as to why action should not be taken against you under said Act," read the notice.
Later, in a post on X, Khera said, "Desperate for attention, Amit Malviya tried a shot at me but much to his dismay, it is the ECI that was left bleeding. Again."
"Few takeaways: After Rahul Gandhi's August 7 press conference, thousands of cases surfaced where the same or different EPIC IDs for one person are registered in multiple booths, constituencies, even states. Malviya showed no particular interest in those cases. So, it is not the integrity of the electoral rolls that he is concerned about. It is politically-motivated mudslinging," he said.
With his "morning stunt", Malviya has conceded that the EC has "failed to maintain the integrity" of the electoral rolls, he added."This is despite my Form 7 application to delete my name from the New Delhi constituency after shifting houses in 2016," Khera said.
"Since 2016, four elections -- 2019 Lok Sabha, 2020 Vidhan Sabha, 2024 Lok Sabha, 2025 Vidhan Sabha -- have gone by. So it is safe to assume that four 'revisions' must have also taken place. Yet, my name is still on New Delhi rolls. Which stone has the ECI been sleeping under?" he said."(Chief Election Commissioner) Gyanesh Gupta Ji should pick his allies wisely -- after Anurag Thakur, Amit Malviya too has found it convenient to toss him under the bus," Khera said.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari also claimed that Khera, the Congress' media department head and Gandhi's "close associate", had two voter IDs with different EPIC numbers registered in Jangpura and New Delhi assembly constituencies in the national capital. "Rahul Gandhi and his close associates are chor (thieves) and making shor (noise)," he said.
"The nexus between Rahul Gandhi and Pawan Khera that has come to light today makes it clear that Rahul Gandhi hates the poor, deprived and oppressed of the country so much that to save the vote chori of his own party leaders and to hide their vote fraud, he is calling the citizens of Bihar 'farzi' and and 'chor' in Bihar," Bhandari charged.
The BJP's counter attack came a day after Rahul Gandhi said his party will soon come out with a "hydrogen bomb" of revelations about "vote chori" and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to show his face to the country afterwards.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva demanded that a case be filed against him for violating Election Commission rules and attacking the foundation of democracy by holding dual votes.