Delhi Boy Virat Kohli’s Name, Photo in Gorakhpur Voting List Stumps Officials

Lucknow: Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli is a resident of Delhi, but has been named as a voter for the upcoming Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypolls. The admission, complete with the skipper’s photo, has puzzled officials who ordered a probe.

As per the voter slip, Kohli’s name has been registered under Sahajanwa Assembly segment, with his voter number given as 822.

The error was spotted by booth-level officer Sunita Chaubey around five days ago, following which the voter slip was added to local corporator Gopal Jaiswal.

The admission, complete with the skipper’s photo, has puzzled officials who ordered a probe.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate Pankaj Srivastava said an investigation has been launched into the mix-up.

Bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur will be held on March 11 and the counting of votes will be held on March 14. The bypolls were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the seats, respectively, following their election to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The saffron party has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against the SP's Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, respectively. Sureetha Kareem is the Congress candidate from Gorakhpur. The party has fielded Manish Mishra from Phulpur. There are 10 candidates in the fray from Gorakhpur, while there are 22 candidates contesting from Phulpur.

According to the Election Commission, there 19.61 lakh voters in Phulpur parliamentary constituency, while there are 19.49 lakh voters in Gorakhpur parliamentary.