Election Commission claim on foreign voters deepens NDA-INDIA clash
PATNA, July 15 -- Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fifth visit to poll-bound Bihar this year on July 18, political atmosphere has charged up in the state after RJD leader and leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, dismissed the "alleged media claims by Election Commission sources" about detection of illegal immigrants from foreign countries in the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The EC officials had on Sunday claimed that field-level functionaries of the ECI have found "a large number of people" from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar during house-to-house visits made for the ongoing intensive review of the voters' list in Bihar.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, the Bihar Leader of Opposition, when asked about the presence of foreign illegal immigrants in electoral rolls as revealed by the poll body to media 'sutra', instantly remarked: "I consider that 'sutra' as 'mutra' (urine, waste)."
Later, as the political atmosphere hot up, he accused the Election Commission of getting news planted through "sources" and questioned the credibility of such sources on X and equated them with the "rumours doing the rounds during Operation Sindoor about Indian forces capturing Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore and flashed in media relentlessly".
"The EC, instead of coming forward itself, is trying to play its game under the cover of sources. I referred to 'Mutra' in reference to bad odour spreading waste," he clarified, maintaining that the reports from ground pointed to a botched up exercise in the name of SIR.
NDA leaders, however, lashed at him for his comments.
"Nothing surprising for Tejashwi as such derogatory comments in front of media only he can do, as he is not educated and just speaks the script that is provided to him. If there is any drift from the script, he goes astray. What he said is an insult to media and he should publicly apologise for it," said former Bihar BJP president and MP Sanjay Jaiswal.
JD-U spokesman Neeraj Kumar said that the kind of language Tejashwi used in public reflected his mental level. "He must be using the same kind of language at home also. This is unfortunate that such a person is the leader of Opposition, but this time the people will show him the right place," he added.
He said that last week, Tejashwi was threatening media at a party function and exhorting his workers to boycott it.
But Tejashwi was defiant in face of the onslaught from NDA leaders. He said that the BJP was never interested in talking about issues confronting the masses, but believed in attempts to mislead.
"What wrong did I say? The kind of things they speak through 'sutra' (sources) are contradicted later. Spreading rumours is like 'mutra' (wastage). If there is no truth, that is wastage. Babas of BJP advise people to consume urine as something purifying. Is that purifying?" he added....
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