NDA seeks legal action against Tejashwi Yadav for allegedly holding two Voter ID cards

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Sunday (August 3, 2025) urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take cognisance of the two voter ID cards allegedly possessed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar AssemblyTejashwi Yadav, and file a case against him.

National spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ajay Alok; chief spokesperson of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) Neeraj Kumar; Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJP-RV) leader Rajesh Bhatt; Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) leader Shyam Sundar; and spokesperson of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) Nitin Bharti, apart from the BJP’s media in-charge Danish Iqbal, raised the issue at a press conference in Patna.

Also Read | ECI asks Tejashwi Yadav to hand over his EPIC card after his name was found on the draft poll roll under a different number

Addressing mediapersons at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, party MP and spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number cited by Mr. Yadav at a press conference on Saturday to allege that his name was missing from the draft voters’ list was different from the one referred to by the ECI to refute his claim. Mr. Patra said the EPIC number given by the RJD leader was not the one he had submitted in his 2020 election affidavit, according to the ECI’s records.

Mr. Patra said the Commission and the Patna District Magistrate had exposed Mr. Yadav’s “lies” and put the “whole truth forward as it is” by stating that his name was enrolled in the voters’ list of the Digha Assembly constituency. “That EPIC number is the same that he (Mr. Yadav) had mentioned in his nomination affidavit of 2020...did you give a wrong affidavit? Did you (Mr. Yadav) file a wrong nomination paper? Did you file under oath during filing nomination?” Mr. Patra said.

Also Read | Draft poll roll for Bihar is out, number of voters dip by 65 lakh

If the RJD leader’s claim was correct, it meant that he held two EPIC numbers, and that amounted to an offence, he said. “Did Tejashwi Yadav have two voter ID cards? If the supreme leader of a party has two EPIC cards, what would be the condition of its workers? Is this why they are afraid of SIR (‘Special Intensive Revision’ of electoral roll)?” Mr. Patra said, accusing the RJD and the Congress of indulging in unfair means to win elections.

“Over the past few years, we have witnessed that the Opposition, particularly the Congress and RJD, etc., have been deliberately targeting Constitutional institutions without any basis as part of a conspiracy to lower Bharat’s stature,” he said.

“Rahul Gandhi was claiming that that he would explode an ‘atom bomb’ and perhaps this was his atom bomb...like that of Pakistan. Neither is Indian democracy afraid of the threat of atom bomb from Pakistan nor that of Rahul Gandhi,” he said.

Also Read | No political party has filed complaints on Bihar draft roll in last 24 hours, says Election Commission

Earlier this week, Mr. Gandhi had claimed that his party had discovered evidence that would leave the ECI with “no place to hide”. He had also compared the evidence to an “atom bomb”.

The BJP leader termed the SIR a Constitutional process being implemented in a “precise and non-escalatory” manner. “If you have a problem, your Booth Level Agents (BLA) can lodge complaint with Booth Level Officers...there is one month’s time from August 1 to September 1. Including all parties, there are about 1.5 lakh BLAs and no one has complained so far. Only applications for adding 3,323 new names of youth who turned 18 on January 1 have been received,” Mr. Patra said, adding that the RJD and the Congress would face an “epic defeat”.