Patna: Political tempers have flared in Bihar over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, with RJD leader and Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav accusing the BJP of orchestrating “voter theft” with the help of the Election Commission.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Tejashwi claimed that Gujarat BJP leader and Bihar in-charge Bhikubhai Dalsania’s name appears as a registered voter in Patna, even though Dalsania last voted in Gujarat during the 2024 elections. The RJD leader alleged this is part of a deliberate plan to manipulate Bihar’s voter rolls by adding BJP leaders’ names in multiple locations.
Tejashwi also presented documents suggesting that Muzaffarpur Mayor Nirmala Devi and her brothers-in-law each possess two separate EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) numbers, with mismatched age details in some cases—pointing, he said, to serious irregularities in the SIR exercise. He recalled that in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the RJD lost over 10 seats by a combined margin of just around 12,000 votes, and accused the BJP of attempting to once again distort voter data to influence outcomes.
According to Tejashwi, while the BJP had previously used investigative agencies like the CBI and ED during elections, it is now “weaponising” the Election Commission. He also expressed hope that the Supreme Court would intervene to ensure fairness.
The controversy follows recent reports of duplicate or conflicting voter ID entries in Bihar’s electoral rolls, prompting calls for investigation into the accuracy of the SIR process. BJP representatives have earlier argued that in some cases, apparent duplication arises because voter deletions from previous constituencies are not updated in time, creating overlap rather than deliberate fraud.
