Patna (Bihar) [India], August 13 : Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday alleged that a senior BJP functionary is shifting his voter registration across multiple states ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections.
In a post on X, Yadav claimed that Bhikhu Bhai Dalsania, a resident of Gujarat and State Organisation General Secretary of Bihar BJP, who he claimed is a close confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, has removed his name from Gujarat's voter list and registered as a voter in Bihar.
https://x.com/yadavtejashwi/status/1955522562663842114
"This is Bhikhu Bhai Dalsania Ji. He is a resident of Gujarat. He is the State Organisation General Secretary of the Bihar BJP. He is a close confidant of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. He has been assigned to BJP's special Bihar project," he wrote on X.
Yadav claimed Dalsania previously voted in Amit Shah's Gandhinagar constituency and might register in another state after the Bihar elections.
He added, "In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he voted in Home Minister Amit Shah Ji's Lok Sabha constituency, Gandhinagar. Now, with the Bihar Assembly elections approaching, he has removed his name from Gujarat's voter list and become a voter in Bihar. Once the Bihar elections are over, he will likely become a voter in another state. He should clarify how many times and in how many states he votes in five years."
According to Yadav, the voter list in Bihar does not show any address or house number for Dalsania, and his name appears in the Gujarati language rather than Hindi, which he claimed could make it difficult for Hindi-speaking voters to identify.
"In the place in Bihar where he is registered as a voter, no address or house number is listed in the voter list. His name in Bihar's voter list is written not in Hindi but in the Gujarati language, so that no Hindi-speaking person can read it. The Election Commission's greatness is boundless, but this time we are closely monitoring every detail. We will not let the Election Commission's vote theft succeed in Bihar," the post added on X.
Earlier today, Yadav alleged that the Election Commission of India is working with the Bharatiya Janata Party to manipulate the voter list in Bihar by issuing two Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers to its leaders and workers.
Speaking at a press conference in Patna, Yadav stated, "Before we had talked about Bihar's deputy chief minister, Vijay Sinha. Now you call it a crime, a mistake, or an expose, we had said it before too, but today I want to tell you that EC is helping the BJP, and cutting the votes of the Opposition. The people of the BJP are being given not one, but two EPIC numbers for themselves, in one Vidhan Sabha only."
"We are exposing one more thing. Muzzafapur's mayor, a BJP leader, named Nirmala Devi, she has two EPIC IDs in the same vidhan sabha. In that, too, they are different. Not only this, but Nirmala Devi has two brothers-in-law; they also have two EPIC numbers," he added.
The RJD leader further alleged that names of people from other states were being added to Bihar's voter list during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) ahead of the assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Bihar elections are expected to be held later this year in October or November; however, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not announced an official date.
While the NDA, comprising the BJP, JD(U), and LJP, aims to continue its tenure in Bihar, the INDIA bloc, comprising the RJD, Congress, and left parties, seeks to oust Nitish Kumar.
In the current Bihar Assembly of 243 members, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) consists of 131 with the BJP having 80 MLAs, JD(U)-45, HAM(S)-4, with the support of 2 Independent Candidates.
The Opposition's INDIA Bloc has a strength of 111 members with RJD leading with 77 MLAs, Congress-19, CPI(ML)-11, CPI(M)-2 and CPI-2.