Days after the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for Digha Assembly constituency issued a fresh notice to RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, asking him to surrender an allegedly fake Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC), Yadav on Sunday alleged that Bihar Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha possesses two voter cards and asked if the poll panel would issue a notice “even after the Special Intensive Revision”.
Alleging that Sinha’s case suggested that the entire electoral roll revision exercise was a “farjiwada (forged process)”, Yadav questioned how the EC could complete the process when several riverine belts of Sonepur and Raghopur had been threatened by floods because of heavy rain and rising water levels of Ganga.
After the SIR draft rolls were published on August 1, Yadav claimed during a press conference that his name had been “deleted” and that his voter ID card was no longer valid. A notice was issued to him. The EC, however, had told Yadav that he had mentioned a wrong EPIC, which was not issued by the poll panel.
Commenting on the EC asking him to respond to allegations that he holds two EPIC numbers, the Leader of Opposition in Bihar said he has responded to the poll panel’s queries through speed post, the mode through which he had received the notice.
Yadav told reporters Sunday, “Vijay Kumar Sinha is a voter from two different Assembly constituencies in two different districts. His name is there in Lakhisarai Assembly constituency in the same district and also in Bankipur Assembly constituency in Patna district.”
“We assume the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) had visited Vijay Kumar Sinha at Patna and Lakhisarai and he would have signed two enumeration forms for the ongoing SIR. After the draft roll is published, Sinha is shown a voter at both places. While in Lakhisarai EPIC, his age is shown as 57, and in Bankipur EPIC it is 60. Besides having two voter cards, this is also age fraud…” he said.
He asked if the poll panel would show the “same urgency in issuing notice to Sinha as it did in his case”.
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Responding to Yadav’s allegations, Deputy CM Sinha said, “After I got my name added to the voter list of Lakhisarai, I had applied to the EC online to remove my name from the voter list in Bankipur. But this application was somehow rejected. After I learnt that my name was still there in Bankipur after the SIR draft rolls were published, I applied afresh on August 5 to delete my name from the Bankipur voter list. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav should know that it is draft rolls and not the final one.”
Though Sinha did not respond to the “age fraud” allegation and how his name was on the Bankipur voter list without signing the enumeration form, Sinha asserted that he has documents and evidence to show that he has taken steps to remove his name from the Bankipur voter list, and added that he has voted from only one of the places.
“I vote from only one place. Last time too, I voted from only one place. The prince of Jungle Raj (Tejashwi) is simply trying to mislead people by giving wrong facts. The entire Bihar knows that he (Tejashwi) plays the game of tarnishing the image of others. He should apologise for making false allegations against me,” Sinha said.
