"Deleted From Delhi Voter List": Ex MP Rakesh Sinha's Reply To Opposition Attacks

Former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha launched a counter attack on political rivals for what he said was trying to create a controversy where there was none, as the first phase of the two-phase Bihar assembly election ended on Thursday.

Sinha told NDTV's Padmaja Joshi on Thursday that the allegation by Opposition leaders that some BJP leaders including him voted in the Delhi assembly election in February, and now went to Bihar to vote there, was an attempt to malign him.

The BJP has also refuted the allegation that is in sync with the Opposition's line of attack on “vote chori (theft)”.

“The Congress should ask the late Manmohan Singh. He taught in Delhi University but remained in Assam's electoral rolls and became Rajya Sabha MP from Assam,” Sinha said.

“As far as my case is concerned, everybody knows in public life what I stand for – constitutional values and morality,” he added.

“I have been teaching in Delhi University for decades. In parliament, my permanent address is my village in Bihar's Begusarai. On my diplomatic passport, my permanent address is the same village,” the former MP said.

To a question central to the allegation against him about voting twice, Sinha said though he voted in Delhi, many workers demanded his presence in Bihar due to his long association with the eastern state's politics.

“As per the demand of the workers and suggestions by people, I got deleted [in Delhi] through the procedure established by the law,” he added.

When asked whether he was positively sure his name had been deleted from Delhi's voter rolls, Sinha said he contacted the Election Commission to make the changes necessary for him to be able to vote in Bihar.

“I wanted to be sure everything goes by the book and there should not be any constitutional anomalies on my part,” he added.

Earlier on Thursday, while voting was going on in Bihar, Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged some BJP leaders who voted in Delhi election in February also went to cast their votes in Bihar polls.

Bharadwaj, who is also the Delhi AAP chief, alleged a “massive voter fraud” – an allegation that Sinha rubbished as baseless. The AAP leader used the same line of attack that the Congress also used in its “vote chori” swipes at the BJP.

“The Election Commission had assured that after the SIR, no one registered in another state could vote in Bihar. Then how did this happen?” Bharadwaj said, referring to the special intensive revision exercise which was done in Bihar ahead of the election.

In the first phase of voting, Bihar recorded the highest-ever turnout, which Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar called a “victory of democracy”.

The turnout on Thursday's end of day was 65 per cent. In the last election held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the turnout was 57.29 per cent. The previous highest voter turnout in Bihar was recorded in 2000 at 62.57 per cent.

The second phase of voting is on November 11. Counting is on November 14.