The Election Commission on Sunday wrote to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav seeking details of the voter I-card he had used for an online search on Saturday to ostensibly demonstrate that his name was missing from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls.

It said the information was needed for a “gahan janch” (intense inquiry).

On Saturday, poll panel sources had done a fact-check and said Tejashwi’s name did feature on the rolls, and alleged that he had used an incorrect electors photo identity card (EPIC) number for the search, carried out before reporters.

“…In the media conference held on August 2, you said your name was not mentioned on the draft voter list,” the electoral registration officer for the 181 Digha Assembly constituency said in his notice, written in Hindi, to Tejashwi.

“After investigation, it was found that your name is mentioned as serial number 416 at polling station number 204, whose EPIC number is RAB0456228,” it added.

“According to what you said at your media conference, your EPIC number is RAB2916120. According to a preliminary investigation, EPIC number RAB2916120 does not appear to have been issued officially.”

The notice continued: “Therefore, you are requested to provide the details of the EPIC (along with the original copy of the card) to the undersigned so that a gahan janch can be carried out.”

The notice was posted on the X handle of Bihar’s chief electoral officer.

Late in the evening, RJD leaders said Tejashwi would soon file a formal reply to
the notice.

Commission sources had on Saturday hinted at possible legal proceedings against Tejashwi for possessing two EPICs, suggesting that the one quoted by him for the online search could be a “forged document”.

They had said that Tejashwi had in his nomination papers of 2020 cited EPIC No. RAB0456228, which the poll panel had used to fact-check and deny his claim of exclusion from the rolls.

Tejashwi’s claim had come amid allegations from Opposition parties and some civil society organisations that the document-driven SIR, which sought citizenship proof from voters, had disenfranchised millions of the poor, marginalised and unlettered.

Petitions have been moved asking the Supreme Court to strike down the “unconstitutional” SIR.

The draft electoral rolls, published on Friday, August 1, contain 7.24 crore names, down from the 7.89 crore that Bihar’s voter list featured before the SIR.

The BJP on Sunday accused Tejashwi of trying to tarnish the Election Commission’s (EC) image to “defame India”.

“This means he (Tejashwi) has two EPIC numbers…. The way in which the Congress and the RJD are launching scathing attacks on the Election Commission, it shows a conspiracy to defame India,” MP and BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.

He stressed that it was a crime to possess two voter I-cards.

“The Congress and the RJD have been thoroughly exposed. Did you (Tejashwi) lie under oath? Did you present the wrong facts to the EC?” Patra said.

The Opposition has relentlessly stalled proceedings in Parliament during the ongoing monsoon session, pressing for an immediate discussion on the SIR. The government has resisted the demand, arguing it cannot respond on behalf of another constitutional body, the Election Commission.

The poll panel has defended the SIR, terming it an exercise to cleanse the electoral rolls by striking out the names of the dead, those enrolled multiple times, and those who have shifted or are untraceable.

It has given people a month’s time till September 1 to file claims and objections if they find that any eligible voter has been left out or ineligible voter included.

On Sunday, the commission said it had so far received “zero” claims or objections from the political parties.