EC issues notice to Prashant Kishor after his name was found registered in both Bihar, West Bengal

The Election Commission of India has issued a showcause notice to Prashant Kishor, leader of the Jan Suraaj Party and poll strategist, after finding his name on electoral rolls in both Bihar and West Bengal.

The notice was issued by the Returning Officer of the Kargahar Assembly Constituency in Sasaram, Rohtas district, Bihar. It states that Kishor is listed as a voter in Part 367 at Middle School, Konar, North Section, Kargahar, under polling booth number 621.

The notice warns that violating this provision may lead to penalties under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act. These penalties include imprisonment for up to one year, a fine, or both.

Kishor has been asked to provide an explanation within three days on how his name was registered in two different state electoral rolls.

Election officials stated that Kishor’s name appears in the voters’ list of his native Kargahar assembly segment in Rohtas district, Bihar, and also in the Bhabanipur assembly constituency in Kolkata, West Bengal, at the address of the Trinamool Congress headquarters. His polling station in Kolkata is St Helen School on B Ranishankari Lane.

Section 17 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, stipulates that an individual cannot be registered as a voter in more than one constituency. In cases of change of address, individuals must submit Form 8, declaring removal from the previous voters’ list. The Election Commission’s recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign in Bihar resulted in the removal of about 6.87 million names, including 700,000 cases involving voters registered in multiple locations.

Neeraj Kumar, JD(U) spokesperson, questioned the necessity of registering as a voter outside one’s home state, stating, “It is amusing that Prashant Kishor, who has all his establishments in Delhi, and hails from Bihar, chose to get registered as a voter in West Bengal. Since when did becoming a poll strategist necessitate your being a voter in the state you are providing your services?” Another JD(U) leader speculated that Kishor may have sought to become a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal after Mamata Banerjee’s 2021 victory, but was snubbed, leading to his temporary retirement from consultancy.

The Jan Suraaj Party, via national spokesperson Kumar Saurabh Singh, placed responsibility on electoral authorities: “The onus is on the Election Commission. It had launched SIR in Bihar with so much fanfare. So many names were dropped on the grounds 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.” On whether Kishor applied for deletion from the West Bengal roll before registering in Bihar, Singh said, “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.”

Opposition and rival parties reacted swiftly. BJP spokesperson Neeraj Kumar called the matter “no minor oversight, but a heinous crime,” while RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said that the episode completely exposes the farce of SIR.