NEW DELHI — In a forceful and combative press conference on Sunday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar directly addressed and rejected the “vote chori” (vote theft) allegations made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The CEC described the claims as “baseless” and accused the opposition of using “misleading visuals” to “undermine faith in the Constitution.”
The CEC’s pushback came on the same day Rahul Gandhi launched his “Voter Adhikar Yatra” in Bihar, escalating a political confrontation over the integrity of the electoral rolls. Gyanesh Kumar gave Gandhi an ultimatum, stating, “Produce evidence of voter fraud or withdraw your remarks. There is no third option.” He gave the Congress leader one week to do so, asserting that the poll body would not be “cowed by political attacks.”
ECI Defends Electoral Process
At the heart of the ECI’s defense was a categorical rejection of the central charge of vote theft. Kumar distinguished between the preparation of electoral rolls and the act of voting itself. “When a voter goes to vote and presses the button, he can press it only once… vote theft cannot happen,” he said. He added that even if a name appears twice on the voter list, a person can only cast a single vote.
The CEC also addressed several specific concerns raised by the opposition regarding the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, which has seen nearly 65 lakh names removed from the draft roll.
- Deletions: Kumar explained that the SIR, the first of its kind in two decades in the state, was aimed at “purifying” the voter list. He clarified that the large number of deaths and migrations being flagged were those that had gone unreported to the EC for the past 20 years, not just in the last six months as alleged by some.
- “House Number 0”: He defended the practice of assigning “notional numbers,” like “House Number 0,” to people who do not have a formal address, such as those living under bridges or in unauthorized colonies. He called it an “inclusionary move” to ensure every eligible voter is on the list.
- Duplicate EPICs: The CEC also spoke about the issue of duplicate voter IDs, explaining that a “hurried clean-up” could lead to the wrong people being deleted from the lists. He acknowledged the issue but said the ECI was taking a cautious approach to resolve it.
Privacy and Credibility at Stake
The CEC reiterated the ECI’s long-held position on voter privacy, stating that it would not share CCTV footage from polling booths, citing a 2019 Supreme Court ruling. He criticized opposition leaders for publicly exposing voters’ personal data and asked, “Should the Election Commission share CCTV videos of anyone’s mother, daughter-in-law, sister, or of anyone else?”
He concluded with a forceful defense of the ECI’s neutrality and credibility. “The EC stood with Indian voters like a rock, stands with them like a rock and will continue to be with them like a rock,” he stated. He added that when millions of voters in Bihar are standing with the Commission, “neither can any question mark be raised on the credibility of the Commission nor on the credibility of the voters.”