Patna, Sep 11 (IANS) A high-level delegation led by State Jan Suraaj Party President Manoj Bharti met the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Singh Gunjiyal on Friday and submitted a memorandum seeking correction of discrepancies in the voter lists for the upcoming Legislative Council elections.
Bharti said the delegation had raised concerns over irregularities in the voter list at a press conference on Wednesday.
He added that the Jan Suraaj Party had identified 1,668 duplicate entries in the Tirhut constituency, where the same names appeared more than once, and had shared the list of duplicate entries with the media.
The party delegation formally submitted the memorandum to the Election Commission of India on Friday.
According to Bharti, election officials acknowledged the reported discrepancies and said corrective measures were already underway.
Officials also told the delegation that the process of adding, deleting or correcting names in the voter lists would continue until the elections are formally announced.
The final election would be conducted on the basis of the voter list published after the correction process, Bharti said.
The terms of eight Bihar Legislative Council members elected from Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies are due to expire in the coming months, making the upcoming elections significant for all major political parties.
Among the four Teachers’ Constituency seats, Naval Kishore Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) represents Patna, Madan Mohan Jha of the Congress represents Darbhanga, Afaque Ahmad, an Independent represents Saran, and Sanjay Kumar Singh of the CPI represents Tirhut.
In the four Graduates’ Constituencies, Neeraj Kumar of the JD-U represents Patna, Sarvesh Kumar, an Independent represents Darbhanga, NK Yadav of the BJP represents Kosi, and Banshidhar Brajvasi, an Independent represents Tirhut.
The current composition of the eight seats includes three Independents, two BJP members and one each from the JD-U, Congress and CPI.
The upcoming elections will therefore be important for political parties seeking to retain their existing strongholds while also attempting to win seats currently held by Independent candidates.
Among the Teachers’ Constituencies, Patna has the largest voter base with 16,689 registered voters, followed by Saran with 10,800, Tirhut with 9,204 and Darbhanga with 8,967 voters.
The Graduates’ Constituencies have substantially larger electorates.
Tirhut has around 1.35 lakh voters, followed by Kosi with around 1.34 lakh, Darbhanga with nearly 1.27 lakh and Patna with about 88,000 voters.
With only a few months remaining before the terms of the sitting MLCs expire, political activity among prospective candidates is expected to intensify.
Once the election schedule is announced, competition among political parties to secure the support of teachers and graduates is likely to become more intense.
–IANS
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