Election Commission of India Responds to Allegations Over Special Intensive Revision

Strategic Insights -

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of irregularities in the voter list, amidst a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise aimed at correcting disparities in the electoral rolls. The Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, has challenged Rahul Gandhi to provide an affidavit within seven days to support his claims, or face rendering them baseless and invalid. The ECI has maintained that the SIR exercise is aimed at removing shortcomings in the voter list and is a matter of grave concern that some parties are spreading misinformation about it.

Key Takeaways:

  • The ECI has rejected the allegations of double voting and "vote theft" by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, stating that the claims are baseless and invalid without an affidavit to support them.
  • The Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, has challenged Rahul Gandhi to provide an affidavit within seven days to support his allegations, or face rendering them baseless.
  • The ECI has maintained that the SIR exercise is aimed at removing shortcomings in the voter list and is a matter of grave concern that some parties are spreading misinformation about it.
  • The ECI has admitted that there could be discrepancies in the electoral rolls, but has emphasized that SIR is the only way to correct these disparities.
  • The poll panel has already identified and corrected more than three lakh cases of multiple people having the same voter identity card numbers, but the duplicate voter issue of one person being listed as a voter at multiple places can only be resolved through exercises like SIR.
  • The ECI has rejected allegations of partisanship, emphasizing that both ruling and opposition parties are equal before the poll authority.
  • The ECI has stated that the doors of the Election Commission are open to everyone, and booth-level officers and agents are working together in a transparent manner.
  • The GEC has maintained that more than one crore employees are engaged in the election exercise, making it impossible for "vote chori" to happen in such a transparent process.

Statistics:

  • More than three lakh cases of multiple people having the same voter identity card numbers have been corrected by the poll panel.
  • The names of voters deleted from Bihar's draft electoral rolls following special intensive revision have been posted on district websites.
  • The ECI has stated that within 56 hours of the top court directive, the names of voters that were not included in the draft electoral roll have been posted on district websites.

Sources:

  • CEC Gyanesh Kumar's statement at the news conference.
  • Rahul Gandhi's statement at the launch event of his 1,300 km 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' covering over 20 districts in Bihar.
  • Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh's post on X.
  • The Pioneer article published by HT Digital Content Services with permission.