Prashant Kishor Registered As Double Voter

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was at the centre of a controversy on Tuesday after it emerged that he is allegedly registered as a voter in both his native Bihar and in neighbouring West Bengal, according to PTI.

Official records show Kishor is listed as a West Bengal voter at 121, Kalighat Road — the address of the Trinamool Congress headquarters in Kolkata’s Bhabanipur assembly constituency, the seat of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. His polling station there is recorded as St Helen School on B Ranishankari Lane, a poll official told PTI.

The official said Kishor is also enrolled in Bihar at Kargahar assembly segment under the Sasaram parliamentary constituency in Rohtas district, with his polling booth listed as Madhya Vidyalaya, Konar.

The poll official pointed to Section 17 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which prohibits registration in more than one constituency, and Section 18, which bars multiple entries within the same constituency. When a person changes address, they must fill Form 8 to seek inclusion in the new roll and indicate consent for deletion from the earlier list, the official added.

Jan Suraaj Party national spokesperson Kumar Saurabh Singh said, “The onus is on the Election Commission. It had launched SIR in Bihar with so much of fanfare. So many names were dropped on the ground 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.” He declined to answer directly whether Kishor had applied to have his name removed from the West Bengal roll before being enrolled in Bihar. “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,” Singh added.

The matter drew responses from both the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc in Bihar, where Kishor’s entry into electoral politics has unsettled rival parties.

Neeraj Kumar, MLC and spokesperson for JD(U), said, “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?” He alleged Kishor may have tried to secure a Rajya Sabha seat by becoming a state resident after the 2021 polls, but that Mamata Banerjee had not supported that plan. “So, in a sulk, he might have staged the drama of retiring from the consultancy business,” Neeraj Kumar said.

After Banerjee’s 2021 re-election, Kishor had announced his retirement as a political strategist. He later launched the ‘Baat Bihar Ki’ campaign, which was shelved after an Intellectual Property Rights dispute, before returning in 2022 with a 3,500-km padayatra under the ‘Jan Suraaj’ banner that led to formation of his party last year.

State BJP spokesperson Neeraj Kumar described the case as “no minor oversight, but a heinous crime” and alleged Kishor was involved “in a vile conspiracy with the ruling TMC in West Bengal to undermine Bihar elections.” He urged the Election Commission to launch an “immediate and rigorous investigation” and described Kishor as among “political brokers and deal makers who trample upon democracy in their hunger for power.”

RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said, “The episode completely exposes the farce that the SIR has been in Bihar, and which is now being carried across the country. Several instances of names of leaders belonging to the ruling NDA, registered as voters at more than one place, have come to the fore. Now, Prashant Kishor, whom we suspect of working, clandestinely, for the BJP-led coalition, has joined the list. Let him come forth with an explanation.”

The Election Commission has acknowledged that duplicate voter entries are a recurring problem and cited this as a reason for launching the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The SIR, which began in Bihar, concluded with the publication of updated rolls on 30 September, resulting in the removal of about 68.66 lakh entries, including roughly seven lakh cases of multiple registrations, PTI reported.

(With inputs from PTI)