Bihar bypoll: Every 5th voter of polling booth has father of same name

Muzaffarpur: In a comedy of errors, almost every fifth voter of a polling booth in a Bihar legislative council constituency, where a by-election was held on Thursday, has the father of the same name.

Officials conceded that it was an “anomaly” in the electoral roll which would, however, not affect the poll process for the Tirhut Graduates constituency, where 18 candidates are in the fray. The voters, numbering slightly over 1.5 lakh, are spread across 197 booths in the districts of Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali and Sheohar.

The anomaly has come to light in the Aurai block of Muzaffarpur, where at one polling booth, “Munna Kumar” has been stated as the father’s name for 138 out of 724 voters, Tirhut Divisional Commissioner Sarvanan M said. “None of the voters would be deprived of their right to franchise because of the anomaly which seems to have been caused by some technical factors,” the commissioner told news agency.