EC ‘colluding’ with BJP to ‘steal’ votes in Bihar, alleges RJD’s Tejashwi

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday accused the Election Commission of “colluding” with the BJP to “steal” votes in Bihar, where assembly polls are due later this year.

He also alleged that the poll panel was “helping BJP leaders secure two voter cards each”.

The BJP termed these allegations as “false and misleading”.

“It is a fact that the Election Commission (EC) has colluded with the BJP to steal votes in Bihar ahead of the coming assembly polls. In fact, the draft electoral rolls published by the EC after the initial exercise of the special intensive revision (SIR) should be called ‘dacoity’ of votes. The EC is helping BJP leaders secure two voter ID cards each in the state,” Yadav alleged, while talking to reporters.

The RJD leader charged Muzaffarpur Mayor Nirmala Devi with possessing two voter ID cards.

“Muzaffarpur mayor, a prominent BJP leader and a probable candidate of the saffron party in the coming assembly polls, possesses two voter ID cards in two different booths in a Vidhan Sabha constituency as per the draft electoral rolls. She possesses two EPIC IDs - REM1251917 and GSB1835164. Her voter IDs mention two different ages,” Yadav alleged.

The RJD leader also claimed that she must have “filled two separate enumeration forms during the first phase of the SIR”.

“She must have signed two forms with different signatures. The EC verified that the mayor herself signed these two different forms. Surprisingly, her two family members also have two voter ID cards separately in two different booths in the same assembly constituency,” he alleged.

Yadav charged the EC with “facilitating the creation of multiple fake voters for the BJP”.

“When the EC itself is doing this in a single constituency, what is the point of the SIR? This implies that the EC is facilitating the creation of multiple fake voters for BJP supporters within a single household. Since she is a potential BJP candidate from Muzaffarpur, the EC is helping her create fake voters in her favour?” Yadav alleged.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha was also found in possession of two voter cards in two assembly constituencies in the draft electoral rolls, Yadav claimed.

Reacting to Yadav’s claims, Sinha told reporters on Wednesday, “Tejashwi is making false and misleading allegations against me. He is simply trying to tarnish my image. He (Yadav) should show his documents, as he has given two different dates of birth. I will take legal action against him for levelling false and baseless allegations against me”.

Yadav also alleged, “Now, residents of Gujarat become voters in Bihar. BJP’s in-charge of Bihar Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya, a resident of Gujarat, has become a Patna voter. He voted in Gujarat in the last Lok Sabha polls. For some years, they (BJP leaders) have been voting by changing places.”

He also claimed, “Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya is registered as a voter here, but no address or house number of the BJP leader has been mentioned on the voter list. His name on Bihar’s voter list is written not in Hindi but in the Gujarati language so that no one can read it.”       He accused the Election Commission of working to “suppress opposition votes and add voters in favour of the BJP”.

“Tell me, how can prominent persons have two Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) with different ages and two different IDs in the same constituency? If this isn’t dishonesty by the EC, then what is? The people of Bihar have known since 2020 that these people are vote thieves,” the RJD leader alleged.

“By rigging, they made us lose 15 seats in the last assembly polls. This time, the public will deal with them and throw them out of power in the coming polls”, claimed the former deputy chief minister of Bihar.

Yadav also questioned the “silence” of the Election Commission in the dual voter ID issue.

“How did such an anomaly occur? Who should be held responsible for this? Why is the EC behaving like a ‘Mauni Baba’? Why are they maintaining a stoic silence over the issue? When we are questioning the SIR exercise, the EC is saying it has not received any complaint from any political parties. In whose direction is the EC functioning?”, the RJD leader asked.

Yadav said his party is hopeful of getting justice from the Supreme Court over the issue, as the matter is pending before the apex court.

Responding to a recent statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in a public rally in Bihar, that ‘infiltrators’ will not be allowed to take part in the electoral process, Yadav said, “The EC must identify the voters who entered India illegally, as referred by the central minister”.