The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday issued a strong rebuttal to viral social media posts claiming that a dog named "Dog Babu" was issued a residence certificate under Bihar's Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll (SIR) drive, allegedly making it eligible to vote.
The claim, amplified by multiple political figures, including Shiv Sena(UBT)'s Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress' Supriya Shrinate, and activist Yogendra Yadav, shared what appeared to be an official residence certificate issued in the name of a dog, complete with a photo and parental details humorously listed as "Kutta Babu" and "Kuttiya Devi".
The viral document triggered widespread outrage and mockery, raising questions about the integrity of the voter registration process.
However, the ECI has now issued a clarification under its #ECIFactCheck banner, labelling the document as "INCORRECT".
The Commission stated: "Vote of every citizen is important. No voter of Bihar has given such document to the Election Commission."
The rebuttal emphasised that no such residence certificate has been officially submitted or considered valid in any electoral process. The document in circulation appears to be fabricated or misused to create political controversy during the SIR campaign, aimed at cleaning and verifying voter rolls in the state.
Officials from Bihar's Revenue Department, whose stamp appears on the fake certificate, also confirmed the image was doctored and had not been issued by any authorised government office. The certificate ID number and QR code seen in the image do not correspond to any legitimate entry in the state database.
The controversy erupted amid heightened political tensions, with opposition parties accusing the government of mismanaging the electoral roll update process.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and several Congress leaders mocked the ECI, suggesting animals could now be enrolled as voters under the BJP-led administration.
(With inputs from IANS)
