New Delhi: A day after Bihar leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav and the Election Commission (EC) presented two different voter ID numbers registered under the former's name, the poll body on Sunday (August 3) announced that the number Yadav had cited “does not appear to have been issued officially”.

The electoral registration officer (ERO) of Bihar's Digha assembly constituency, where Yadav is registered as a voter, has also asked the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader to provide the details of the elector photo identity card (EPIC) whose number he provided on Saturday as well as an original copy of the document “so that it can be thoroughly investigated”.

In a press conference on Saturday, Yadav had claimed that his name did not figure in the draft electoral rolls published by the EC after the enumeration phase of its contentious special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar.

He had cited his EPIC number as being RAB2916120, but Patna's district magistrate and district electoral officer later on Saturday produced an extract from the draft electoral roll containing Yadav's name along with the EPIC number RAB0456228.

The magistrate also said that Yadav in his affidavit for the 2020 assembly election had provided the EPIC number RAB0456228, as opposed to the number RAB2916120 he cited in his press conference.

Taking the matter a step further, the Digha ERO on Sunday said that the EPIC number Yadav provided the previous day “does not appear to have been officially issued”.

“Therefore, you are requested to kindly provide the details of the EPIC card (along with the card's original copy) mentioned by you in the press conference held on August 2, 2025 to the undersigned [the ERO], so that it can be thoroughly investigated,” the official said in a letter to Yadav.

Citing reasons including steady urbanisation, migration, the inadequate reporting of deaths and the presence of undocumented immigrants in Bihar's voter rolls, the EC announced in June that it would conduct an SIR in the poll-bound state.

As the revision has carried on, various quarters including opposition parties have expressed concern that the exercise is taking place in too small a time frame – months before Bihar is due for its next assembly election – and that its eligibility requirements risk disenfranchising swathes among the state's genuine electors.

Many electors are required to prove the details of their parents' and/or their own birth for inclusion in the revised voter rolls, which they can do by submitting one of 11 documents listed by the EC. Although the Supreme Court while hearing challenges to the SIR suggested to the EC that it also accept the more commonly kept Aadhaar, voter and ration cards, the poll body has stayed its course.

Meanwhile, the EC said on Sunday that it has not yet received any claims or objections regarding the draft rolls from any of Bihar's registered national or state parties.

It has received 941 claims and objections directly from voters, said the EC, which is on day three of its one-month-long adjudication process.

Following the completion of the SIR's enumeration phase and before publishing its draft rolls, the EC said it had identified some 22 lakh names for deletion on account of their being deceased, 36 lakh names on account of their moving away permanently or their inability to be traced, and seven lakh names that had been registered in more than one place.

Yadav said on Saturday that the EC in its list of people whose enumeration forms were not received did not specifically categorise people as having moved away, died or unable to be traced.

“This situation is alarming, serious and contrary to the democratic process … This further deepens the suspicion that the Election Commission is scared of the ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court and is deliberately withholding complete information to avoid questions about the legitimacy of its process,” alleged the RJD scion.

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