New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MPs Kapil Sibal and AD Singh alleged Sunday that four special trains transported approximately 6,000 people from Haryana to Bihar November 3, demanding clarification from the railway minister about their purpose and funding during assembly elections, while railways attributed the movement to festive season rush.
Responding to their claims, the Railway Ministry said, “This festival season, the railways is running 12,000 special trains; 10,700 special trains are scheduled and about 2000 trains are unscheduled. We are operating war rooms at three levels, divisional, zonal, and Railway board level.”
“Whenever there is a sudden rush of passengers at any station, we immediately put into service unscheduled special trains,” the ministry said.
Independent MP Sibal and RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Singh, addressing a joint press briefing, claimed Railway officials were asked to arrange some trains and get in touch with Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli and BJP general secretary Archana Gupta there.
Singh claimed that payments for these trains had been made by the BJP.
Sibal said, “Today, I am here to shed light on something. The Election Commission will not do anything, as their way of conducting these elections has been rather suspect. November 3, a train started at 10 am from Karnal and travelled to Barauni via Panipat. It had 1,500 people on board.
“The next started at 11 am on November 3 from Karnal and via Patna went to Bhagalpur. It also had 1,500 people. At 3 pm the same day, a third train, and a fourth one at 4 pm started from Gurugram and via Patna went to Bhagalpur. There were around 6,000 people in these trains,” he claimed.
The question arises whether only Haryana have people who are to vote, or these people have been sent specially for a specific purpose, Sibal posed.
“If they are genuine voters, they will take their own trains, and if they have been sent as per plan, you also know that such fraudulent things have been happening,” he said.
Sibal said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw must answer why these special trains were run, and why they were run specifically from Haryana when they could not run such trains during Chhath.
“The other issue is that if 6,000 people have reached there, then he would know how many got down in Patna and how many went to Bhagalpur, how many got on from Panipat and Gurugram. Who booked these trains? Were they booked by JD(U) or the BJP?” he asked.
Singh claimed he got information that railway officials were told that some trains had to be made available, and they should coordinate with Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal and another BJP leader.
“The payment has been made by the BJP. Let the rail minister say who paid the money for these trains,” he said and claimed that the passengers would be “professional voters” who vote from constituency to constituency on a particular date.
They must be having fake EPIC cards for which the EC has been helping them, Singh alleged.
The Bihar polls are being held in two phases November 6 and 11, and results will be announced November 14.
The opposition INDIA bloc, which has the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties as the main constituents, has declared RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav its chief ministerial candidate.