Patna: Election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor’s dual registration as a voter in Bihar and West Bengal caused a stir in the poll-bound state of Bihar on Tuesday after the Election Commission (EC) sent him a notice stating that being registered to vote is a crime that carries a one-year jail sentence, a fine, or both. Within three days, the poll body requested clarification from him.
However, the leaders of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) blasted him and questioned why he was included in Bengal even though he was featured on Bihar’s voting roll. Kishor is registered to vote at the St. Helen School polling station on B. Ranishankari Lane in the Bhabanipur assembly seat of West Bengal, according to EC authorities.
His address is 121 Kalighat Road, which is also the Trinamool Congress (TMC) headquarters of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She represents Bhabanipur as an MLA. Kishor is registered to vote in the Kargahar Assembly seat in the Rohtas district of Bihar at the government middle school in Konar. IUI3123718 is his election photo identity card (EPIC) number.
No one may be registered to vote in more than one constituency, according to section 17 of the Representation of the People Act of 1950. Section 31 stipulates that any infraction will result in a fine, a year in jail, or both. Therefore, you have three days to present your case on being included in multiple constituencies,” the Kargahar electoral official stated in the notice.
The Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) of Kishor is running independently for the 243-member Bihar assembly; it is not affiliated with the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), usually referred to as the Mahagathbandhan, or the NDA. It should be noted that during the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, Kishor and his company, I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee), provided services to the TMC. The polls were swept by the party.
Following the disclosure of Kishor’s inclusion on the electoral rolls of both Bihar and Bengal, he was initially attacked by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU), with whom he briefly served as its national vice president.
Since he is a native of Bihar, we can see why he is mentioned there. Given the existence of his establishment, we may have comprehended his inclusion on Delhi’s voting records. However, we don’t understand why his name was posted in Bengal, namely at the address of the West Bengal headquarters of the Trinamool Congress (TMC),” stated Neeraj Kumar, a spokesperson and MLC for the Janata Dal United (JDU).
“Do you have the same political goals as the Bangladeshi immigrants who are attempting to use dishonest methods to obtain an Aadhaar card in order to establish they are Indian citizens? Despite being a voter in Bihar, you deceitfully became a voter in Bengal while giving speeches for migration. Did you anticipate being sent to the Rajya Sabha by the TMC? You are the only one accountable for this crime, which was committed with your consent. You need to explain this,” Neeraj continued.
Amit Malviya, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national information and technology department, also made fun of Kishor, claiming that if his party had actually been present in Bihar, his voting in two states would have caused a great deal of issue. But since JSP is irrelevant, it didn’t occur.
The fact that every one of Rahul Gandhi’s supporters participates in “vote chori,” or vote stealing, is more striking. It’s amazing how hypocritical they are,” Malviya continued. But according to the JSP, Kishor had long before asked for his name to be removed from the Bhabanipur voter list, and the EC’s failure was indicated by the fact that it was not.
“Kishor registered to vote in Bhabanipur while he was employed there. He had his EPIC prepared, but after his job ended and he left Bengal, he applied to have it revoked,” JSP media in-charge Obaidur Rahman told ETV Bharat.
It was entirely the EC’s job to remove Kishor’s name, and it failed. This is being pushed now to turn it become a Bihar election issue,” Rahman continued.
Coincidentally, the EC has frequently admitted in recent years that multiple voter listings are a persistent problem, citing this as one of the justifications for initiating the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls. It would be carried out all around the nation.
About 68.66 lakh voters were removed from the electoral lists as a result of the SIR in Bihar, including about seven lakh cases of electors who were enrolled more than once.
