‘EC Didn’t Act’: Prashant Kishor’s Team Blames Poll Body Over Dual Voter Entries In Bihar, Bengal

‘EC Didn’t Act’: Prashant Kishor’s Team Blames Poll Body Over Dual Voter Entries In Bihar, Bengal

Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, who heads the Jan Suraaj Party and is contesting the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, has found himself at the centre of a controversy over dual voter registration. Official records show Kishor's name appearing on voter lists in both West Bengal and Bihar, a violation under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.

While Prashant Kishor himself has not issued a public statement, a senior member of his team dismissed the controversy, calling it a clerical oversight on the part of the Election Commission (EC).

“This is the Election Commission's mistake, not Prashant Kishor's. He applied for deletion of his Bengal entry after registering in Bihar. If the EC did not act on that, what more could he do?" the aide said.

According to his team, Kishor had shifted his voter registration to Bihar following his political launch with Jan Suraaj, which is based in the state. However, they did not clarify when or whether the EC had officially processed his request to remove his Bengal voter entry.

According to election records, Kishor is enrolled as a voter in Bihar's Kargahar Assembly constituency, which falls under the Sasaram parliamentary seat. His polling booth is listed as Madhya Vidyalay, Konar village, in Rohtas district, his ancestral home.

Simultaneously, Kishor's name appears in West Bengal's Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, where his address is recorded as 121, Kalighat Road, the location of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) headquarters. His polling station is St Helen School on B Ranishankari Lane. Kishor had previously worked with the TMC as a political consultant during the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections.

Under Section 17 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, no individual can be registered as a voter in more than one constituency at the same time. Section 18 further prohibits multiple registrations within the same constituency.

To update voter details or change constituencies, citizens are required to file Form 8 with the Election Commission, requesting correction or deletion of earlier entries.

Electoral duplication, however, is not uncommon in India. The EC itself acknowledged the problem earlier this year, citing it as a key reason for launching a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls nationwide, starting with Bihar.

In its June 24 order, the EC noted that many electors move residence and register at a new location without deleting their old entry, leading to “repeated enrolments" across constituencies.

The Bihar SIR exercise, concluded with the publication of the updated rolls on September 30, resulted in the deletion of nearly 68.66 lakh names. Of these, about 7 lakh were found to be duplicate registrations, voters listed in more than one place.

Despite this, officials admit that duplicate entries continue to exist in the system, given the vast scale of India's voter database.

Local TMC councillor Kajari Banerjee, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's sister-in-law, confirmed that 121 Kalighat Road serves as the party's official office. “He (Kishor) used to visit and stay there during his work with TMC. I am not sure whether he enrolled as a voter from here or not," she said as quoted by Indian Express.

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Meanwhile, the CPI(M)'s Bhabanipur unit had previously objected to Kishor's voter registration in the area during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, alleging he was not a resident of the constituency.

With Kishor now an active political contender in Bihar, the revelation has triggered debate over compliance and accountability in the country's electoral process.

Source: News18
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