8,341 Bihar voters filed name change forms; no party complaints

Even after 10 days of the publication of electoral draft rolls in Bihar, none of the political parties has filed any complaints till Sunday, while 8,341 electors have submitted their objections directly to the ECI for addition or deletion of names, the poll panel said.

- IMRAN MOJIB

Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav set political temperatures in Bihar soaring on Sunday accusing Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha of having registered himself as a voter in two Assembly constituencies — one in Lakhisarai in the Munger district under EPIC Number IAF3939337 and the other in Bankipur in the Patna district under EPIC Number AFS0853341.

He said: "It raises questions about the credibility of month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar by the Election Commission of India (ECI), especially because a deputy chief minister's name is listed in two constituencies. The ECI must clarify whether this fraud was committed by Sinha or is the result of irregularities in the SIR process."

What's more, the RJD leader pointed out that Sinha has also manipulated his age. "In the voter list of Lakhisarai Assembly constituency, Sinha's age is mentioned as 57 years, while in the voter list of the Bankipur Assembly constituency, his age is shown as 60 years."

Accusing Sinha of violating the election commission's guidelines, which constitutes a serious offense, he asked why no notice has been issued by the Patna or Lakhisarai district administrations against Sinha, while in his (Tejashwi's) case a media trial was initiated without verifying facts.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar was marked by huge uproar and protests by the Opposition parties, with the latter claiming a series of "irregularities and malfunctioning" in the way the whole procedure was rushed, which was bound to deprive lakhs of voters of their right to vote.