‘Voter In Two States’: Prashant Kishor’s Name Found In Both Bengal And Bihar Lists

Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, is currently registered as a voter in both West Bengal and Bihar, according to official electoral rolls, the Indian Express reported.

In West Bengal, Kishor’s name appears under the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, with his address listed as 121 Kalighat Road — the Trinamool Congress headquarters.

His polling station is St Helen School on B Ranishankari Lane. Kishor had previously worked with the TMC during the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections as a political consultant.

In Bihar, he is enrolled as a voter in the Kargahar Assembly constituency under the Sasaram parliamentary seat. His polling station is located at Madhya Vidyalay, Konar, in Rohtas district — Kishor’s ancestral village.

As per the report, a senior member of Kishor’s team stated that he became a voter in Bihar after the Bengal polls and has applied for cancellation of his Bengal voter card.

The status of this application remains unclear.

Prashant Kishor is not the first Bihar politician to face allegations of dual voter registration. Earlier, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav was also accused of possessing voter cards from two different constituencies — one in Delhi and another in Bihar.

According to Sections 17 and 18 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, no individual is permitted to be registered in the electoral rolls of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.

Despite these provisions, instances of multiple registrations remain common.

The Election Commission has cited duplicate entries as one of the reasons behind its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which began this year with Bihar.

The SIR exercise removed about 68.66 lakh names from the rolls, including around 7 lakh cases of voters registered in multiple locations. Officials acknowledge that duplicate entries may still exist.

Kishor, who is leading his Jan Suraaj Party into the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls, has not commented publicly on the matter.

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