Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was on Tuesday served a notice over his name being reportedly registered as a voter in his home state Bihar, as well as adjoining West Bengal.However, the former political strategist stuck to his guns, asserting that the onus was on EC, which “claims to have purified electoral rolls in Bihar through SIR”, to have done the needful in his case.
The notice has been issued by the district election office in Rohtas district of Bihar, where Kishor has been registered as a voter in Kargahar assembly segment. He has been asked to respond within three days.
According to official records, 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, an election official in West Bengal said.“His polling station is listed as St Helen School on B Ranishankari Lane,” the official added.
During the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, Kishor had worked as a political consultant for the TMC.
In case of a change of address, a person must apply for inclusion of his name in the new place after filling up Form 8, which is a declaration that he has shifted base and consents to deletion from the voters’ list at the earlier place of residence.The notice issued by DEO, Rohtas, from the district headquarters of Sasaram, has cited a report published in a leading English daily, which has pointed out the anomaly in the case of Kishor.
The notice points out that “Section 31 of the Representation of People Act” prohibits a person from having his name enrolled as a voter at more than one place, and that violation of the provision was “punishable with imprisonment for one year, or fine, or both”.However, Kishor, who was away in Araria district for assembly poll campaign, remained defiant.