Attempts made to delete nearly 80,000 Muslim voters in Bihar’s Dhaka constituency
reveals investigative report
Patna: Nearly 80,000 Muslim voters in Bihar’s Dhaka constituency were targeted for deletion from the electoral roll through formal submissions made in the name of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries, according to an exclusive investigation by The Reporters’ Collective.
The investigation found that written requests for mass deletions were submitted to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) in East Champaran district and to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar. One such petition was filed in the name of the personal assistant of Dhaka’s BJP MLA Pawan Kumar Jaiswal, while another was submitted on the BJP’s state headquarters letterhead in Patna.
The petitions alleged that over 78,000 Muslim voters were “not Indian citizens” and sought their removal from the voter list. However, the ERO acknowledged receiving the submissions and said bulk deletion requests would not be entertained, though the names were marked for verification during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
Local residents expressed deep anxiety after learning that their names appeared in the BJP-backed complaints. Among those listed was Firoz Alam, sarpanch of Fulwaria Gram Panchayat, who said his entire family had been wrongly accused of being non-citizens. Teachers, booth-level officers, and even newly registered young voters were also among those named.
The sitting BJP MLA, Pawan Jaiswal, did not respond directly to the revelations. Instead, he accused the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of attempting to delete 40,000 Hindu voters, though he declined to provide proof.
Dhaka constituency, bordering Nepal, has a history of close contests. In 2020, Jaiswal defeated RJD’s Faisal Rahman by just over 10,000 votes out of more than two lakh polled. Given this margin, even a few thousand deletions could significantly alter the electoral outcome.
The Reporters’ Collective noted that such mass targeting of one community is unprecedented, though smaller-scale voter list manipulations have long been alleged in Bihar. Critics say the controversial SIR process, conducted in haste and confusion, has created opportunities for political interference and disenfranchisement of minorities.
The final electoral roll for Dhaka will be released on October 1, which will determine the fate of the nearly 80,000 Muslim voters whose citizenship has been questioned.
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Five railway staffers injured as van headed to Rajdhani Express fire site overturns in MP
Ratlam (MP) (PTI): Five railway staffers were injured, one of them critically, when their van carrying repair equipment to the site of a Rajdhani Express fire overturned in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam district on Sunday, officials said.
The blaze erupted in an AC coach of the Delhi-bound Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express between Vikramgarh Alot and Lunirichha stations under the Kota division of the railways in Ratlam at 5.15 am.
It disrupted the movement of several trains on the Mumbai-Delhi route, as per the officials.
A van carrying necessary equipment to Alot overturned on the way when a cow suddenly strayed into the middle of the road, they said.
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Five railwaymen were injured, one of them critically, the officials said.
The incident took place when the van carrying essential equipment for overhead electric line repair, among other things, was on its way to Alot from Shyamnagar in Ratlam, West Central Railway's chief public relations officer Harshit Shrivastava told PTI.
The injured persons were rushed to the hospital and were subsequently referred to Kota in Rajasthan, officials said.
No casualties were reported in the train fire.
