The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday dubbed as “baseless” claims of RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav that his name was missing from the draft electoral rolls of Bihar. Officials said that in the relevant portion of the draft roll, his name appears at serial number 416.
Yadav on Saturday claimed his name was missing in the draft electoral rolls published by the EC as part of the special intensive revision in Bihar, ahead of the Assembly polls. At a press conference, Yadav, a former deputy chief minister, connected his phone to a big screen and tried to search his own EPIC number, which threw up the result ‘no records found’. The RJD leader claimed he was not provided with any receipt by the booth-level officer who came to his house with an enumeration form.
Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Samrat Choudhary, besides the Patna district administration, refuted the claim, sharing a screenshot of the draft electoral rolls in which Yadav’s details, along with a photograph, could be seen. Choudhary came out with a post on his X handle, accusing Yadav of lacking the qualifications to do a proper search and find his name.
“Your name is very much alongside that of your father, respected Lalu Prasad (RJD supremo). You would do better to shut your shop dealing in fraudulent and false claims”, said Choudhary.
Hitting back, the poll body said pure electoral rolls are the foundation of any democracy. Under the special intensive revision, the period of claims and objections is for full one month - from August 1 to September 1.”He should ask the 47,506 booth-level agents of his party to file claims and objections if they find that name of any eligible is left out or if name of any ineligible voter has been included,” the EC said.
It pointed out that no Booth Level Agent (BLA) of any political party including RJD has submitted a single case to the booth level officers for inclusion or deletion during the past 24 hours.
“All BLAs have agreed to go through the booth wise draft lists given to them on August 1 carefully. The EC is not able to understand as to why he is continuing to make baseless allegations that his name is not there,” the EC said.
The district administration in Patna also came out with a tweet, debunking “news reports suggesting that the name of the honourable leader of the opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, was not in draft rolls prepared as part of special intensive revision in Bihar”.
The administration also said “upon investigation”, it was found that Yadav’s name was very much there and his booth was still at the library of the veterinary college, as before, but with changes in his own serial number as well as that of the polling station. The administration, too, shared a screenshot of the relevant part of the draft electoral roll.