On Sunday, August 17, at 3 p.m., the Election Commission of India (ECI) will host a press conference at the National Media Centre in New Delhi. The meeting is being called “unprecedented” because the poll body usually only holds official press briefings to announce election dates.
The news conference is likely to talk about the continuing debate over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral registers and the “vote theft” claims made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The election commission has always turned down Gandhi’s claims and has even asked him to provide documentation and a signed statement to make his protest official. The ECI has also spoken out against words like “vote chori” (vote theft), saying they are a “assault on the integrity” of poll officials.
The Supreme Court has also said something about it. It told the ECI to make public the names of the 65 lakh people who were taken off the voters’ list, along with the grounds for their removal, to make the SIR process more open. The ECI has said it will do what it says it will do.
The news conference will be on the same day that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav’s INDIA bloc is supposed to start its “Voter Adhikar Yatra” (Voter Rights March) in Bihar to protest what they say are unfair practices.