‘People of Gujarat becoming voters of Bihar,’ Tejashwi Yadav taunts BJP

Former deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav claimed on Wednesday, 13 August, that people from Gujarat are being added to Bihar’s voter rolls with scant regard for the 'one man, one vote' principle.

Using BJP leader Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya as an example, he alleged in a press conference that Dalsaniya voted in Gujarat in 2024, but is found to also be registered as a voter in Patna. Yadav called it part of a larger conspiracy by the BJP, allegedly in collusion with the Election Commission, to influence the upcoming Bihar elections.

"Now the people of Gujarat are becoming voters of Bihar. Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya, who is in charge of the BJP, has become a voter of Patna. He cast his last vote in Gujarat in 2024, but he is still a voter of Patna. He had his name deleted in Gujarat, but it's worth noting that it hasn't been five years, and you started changing places and voting. When the Bihar elections are over, then where will he go after getting his name deleted? This is a conspiracy that you all will have to understand. BJP is doing dishonesty on a large scale in connivance with the Election Commission," Yadav said.

Yadav accused the Election Commission of "colluding" with the BJP to "steal" votes in Bihar, where assembly polls are due later this year.

He also alleged that the poll panel was "helping BJP leaders secure two voter cards each".

The BJP termed these allegations as "false and misleading".

However, Yadav insisted, "It is a fact that the ECI has colluded with the BJP to steal votes in Bihar ahead of the coming assembly polls. In fact, the draft electoral rolls published by the ECI after the initial exercise of the special intensive revision (SIR) should be called a 'dacoity of votes'. The ECI is helping BJP leaders secure two voter ID cards each in the state."

The RJD leader charged Muzaffarpur mayor Nirmala Devi with possessing two voter ID cards, for example.

"The Muzaffarpur mayor, a prominent BJP leader and a probable candidate of the saffron party in the coming assembly polls, possesses two voter ID cards in two different booths in a Vidhan Sabha constituency as per the draft electoral rolls. She possesses two EPIC IDs — REM1251917 and GSB1835164. Her voter IDs mention two different ages," Yadav alleged.

The RJD leader also claimed that she must have "filled two separate enumeration forms during the first phase of the SIR".

"She must have signed two forms with different signatures. The EC verified that the mayor herself signed these two different forms. Surprisingly, her two family members also have two voter ID cards separately in two different booths in the same assembly constituency," he alleged.

Yadav charged the EC with facilitating the creation of multiple fake voters for the BJP in this fashion.

"When the ECI itself is doing this in a single constituency, what is the point of the SIR? This implies that the ECI is facilitating the creation of multiple fake voters for BJP supporters within a single household. Since she is a potential BJP candidate from Muzaffarpur, the ECI is helping her create fake voters in her favour?" Yadav alleged.

Bihar deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha was also found in possession of two voter cards belonging to two assembly constituencies in the draft electoral rolls, Yadav claimed.

Reacting to Yadav's claims, Sinha told reporters on Wednesday, "Tejashwi is making false and misleading allegations against me. He is simply trying to tarnish my image. He (Yadav) should show his documents, as he has given two different dates of birth. I will take legal action against him for levelling false and baseless allegations against me".

Yadav, meanwhile, alleged, "For some years, they (BJP leaders) have been voting by changing places."

Speaking of Dalsaniya, he added, "Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya is registered as a voter here, but no address or house number of the BJP leader has been mentioned on the voter list. His name on Bihar's voter list is written not in Hindi, but in the Gujarati language, so that no one can read it."

"Tell me," he continued, "how can prominent persons have two Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) with different ages and two different IDs in the same constituency? If this isn't dishonesty by the ECI, then what is? The people of Bihar have known since 2020 that these people are vote chors."

"By rigging, they made us lose 15 seats in the last assembly polls. This time, the public will deal with them and throw them out of power in the coming polls," claimed the former deputy chief minister of Bihar, and questioned the "silence" of the Election Commission on the dual voter ID issue.

"How did such an anomaly occur? Who should be held responsible for this? Why is the ECI behaving like a mauni baba [ascetic who has taken a vow of silence]? Why are they maintaining a stoic silence over the issue? When we are questioning the SIR exercise, the ECI is saying it has not received any complaint from any political parties. So to whose benefit is the ECI functioning?" the RJD leader rattled out a slew of questions for the polling watchdog.

Yadav said his party is hopeful of getting justice from the Supreme Court over the issue, as the matter is pending before the apex court.

Finally, responding to a recent statement by union home minister Amit Shah at a public rally in Bihar saying that 'infiltrators' will not be allowed to take part in the electoral process, Yadav said, "The EC must identify the voters who entered India illegally, as referred to by the central minister."

Of course, as activists such as Yogendra Yadav have been at pains to point out, there has been not a single 'illegal foreign national' found in the January 2025 Bihar voter lists that the ECI has been able to point to.

With PTI inputs