Tejashwi under cloud over ‘forged duplicate’ voter ID card: Election office source

New Delhi, Aug 2 The controversy surrounding RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav's name in draft voter list took a new twist on Saturday with an ECI source hinting that the Leader of Opposition in Bihar may have illegally acquired a second voter ID card a decade ago.

On a day which saw the ECI rebutting Yadav’s allegation on his name missing from the draft list, the election office source said an inquiry into the RJD leader’s electoral roll records have, so far, shown that his now-defunct second Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) was never generated through official channel.

Amid suspicion of forgery in preparing the second EPIC of Yadav, ECI sources said the RJD leader used Electoral Roll with EPIC No. RAB0456228 for filling his nomination papers on affidavit in 2020. He had this EPIC number even in the electoral roll in 2015.

However, an inquiry showed that there is another EPIC number - RAB2916120 – in his name which has been found to be non-existing.

Sources said despite a thorough check of 10-year-old documents related to Yadav, no records have been found for the second EPIC number yet.

“It is highly likely that the second EPIC was never made through official channel,” said a source in Bihar election office, adding that an inquiry is still on to understand the reality of the second EPIC number, and to rule out whether that is a forged document.

Earlier in the day, Yadav triggered a political storm by claiming that his name was missing from the draft electoral roll of Bihar.

The District Electoral Officer (DEO) of Patna issued a rebuttal, stating that Tejashwi Yadav’s name was indeed present in the updated voter list.

In a post shared on social media platform X, the DEO’s office wrote: “Tejashwi Yadav’s claim that his name is missing from the electoral roll post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is false. His name appears at Serial Number 416, and his polling booth number is 204 — Veterinary College, Patna.”

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