In a bizarre incident of negligence by the Election Commission, a woman in Bihar has received her voter ID card carrying the photograph of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar instead of her picture! The woman Abhilasha Kumari is a resident of Jaipal Patti Mohalla of Madhepura Nagar Parishad area. This happens when the Bihar Assembly Elections are just a few months away.

This matter came to light on Wednesday during the Bihar bandh, when Abhilasha’s husband Chandan Kumar approached the local media with his wife’s voter ID card. While Abhilasha Kumari’s name and other details are correctly printed on the card, CM Nitish Kumar’s face can be seen instead of her photograph!

The woman’s husband Chandan Kumar said that about two and a half months ago, the voter ID card came in his wife’s name through the post office. He alleged that when he went to the concerned BLO complaining about this mistake, he was advised not to tell this to anyone!

Calling it gross administrative negligence, Chandan Kumar has raised the question that while by mistake the picture of an unknown person can appear in someone else’s voter ID, how can picture of the Chief Minister of a state appearing on the card of a common woman?

Calling it a serious lapse in the system, he said that such a mistake reflects the negligence of the agency or employee preparing the voter ID. He has demanded an investigation so that such mistakes do not happen in future and people do not have to face similar problems.

Response from Election Official and Madhepura DM

Reacting to the allegations, Deputy election officer Jitendra Kumar said that the voter ID cards for Bihar are printed in Karnataka. He added that the error could be corrected by submitting Form 8 either online or at the sub-divisional officer’s office.

Madhepura District Magistrate Taranjot Singh confirmed that the matter is being investigated. “The entry for the election ID was done on Jan 7, 2024. The BLO who did the entry has been removed and an explanation has been requested,” Singh said. When asked whether the mistake was intentional, he replied, “We have given the BLO a week’s time to provide an explanation.”

Incident triggers political outrage in West Bengal

The incident has triggered political outrage in the neighbouring state of West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress on Thursday flagged the incident on its official X handle, calling it a “shocking and shameful” error, while accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of inaction.

The party has demanded answers from the Election Commission about how such serious mistakes were happening, how many faulty voter IDs might be in circulation, which states were most affected, and whether previous elections were compromised because of these errors.

The official X handle of Trinamool Congress posted, “A shocking and shameful incident has surfaced from Bihar where a woman’s voter ID card in Madhepura district features the face of CM Nitish Kumar instead of her own photograph. Reports of similar bizarre, erroneous voter IDs are pouring in from across states.

And what is @ECISVEEP doing? NOTHING. We demand answers:

How are such blunders happening under your watch?

How many such faulty voter IDs are currently in circulation?

Which states are affected the most?

How many past elections stand compromised because of this?

What immediate corrective action is being taken?

How will ECI ensure people are not disenfranchised while fixing its own mess?

This is serious administrative negligence, if not something more sinister.”