The Election Commission has issued a notice to Prashant Kishor, founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, after it was found that his name appears on the voter lists of two states-- Bihar and West Bengal. According to officials, the Returning Officer of Karghar Assembly Constituency has asked Kishor to respond within three days, explaining how his name came to be registered in two different states simultaneously.
Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party is contesting the assembly elections in Bihar.
https://getapi.indiatvnews.com/doc/prashant-kishor-notice.pdf
Prashant Kishor listed as voter in two states
According to official records, poll strategist-turned-politician Kishor is enrolled as a voter in West Bengal at 121, Kalighat Road, the address of the Trinamool Congress headquarters in Kolkata's Bhabanipur assembly constituency, which is Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's seat.
"His polling station is listed as St Helen School on B Ranishankari Lane," the official added.
It is pertinent to mention that during the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, Kishor had worked as a political consultant for the TMC.
Kishor is also registered at the Kargahar assembly segment under the Sasaram parliamentary constituency in Rohtas district of Bihar. His polling booth is Madhya Vidyalaya, Konar.
Meanwhile, both the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc in Bihar seized the opportunity, as Prashant Kishor's entry into active politics has become a point of concern for both rival camps.
What did Prashant Kishor say?
"I have been a voter from the Kargahar Assembly constituency since 2019. For two years, when I was in Kolkata, I had made a voter ID card there. Since 2021, my voter ID has been for the Kargahar Assembly constituency. If the ECI is saying that my name is enrolled as an elector in other places as well, then why are they troubling everyone by carrying out the SIR? I have nothing to do with the notice issued by the ECI," said Kishor.
When asked about the alleged irregularity, Jan Suraaj Party national spokesperson Kumar Saurabh Singh said, "The onus is on the Election Commission. It had launched SIR in Bihar with so much of fanfare. So many names were dropped on the ground of deletion. When they can leave room for a lapse in case of a well-known personality like Prashant Kishor, one can imagine the diligence of the EC elsewhere." He, however, evaded a direct reply to a pointed query as to whether Kishor had applied for deletion of his name from the voters' list in West Bengal, prior to applying for inclusion in the electoral roll of Bihar.
"Prashant Kishor is an educated man. He understands his responsibilities well. That he was stationed in West Bengal earlier, as a poll strategist for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is well known. Let the EC approach us if it thinks that there has been wrongdoing on our part. Our legal team will respond," he added.
Incidentally, the Election Commission (EC) has admitted that duplicate voter entries remain a recurring challenge and identified it as one of the key reasons for initiating the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country.
The SIR, which began in Bihar, concluded with the publication of the updated rolls on September 30, leading to the deletion of around 68.66 lakh entries, including nearly seven lakh cases where voters were found registered in more than one location.
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