Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday refuted Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” allegations, saying voters are being targeted by keeping a gun on the shoulders of the Election Commission of India.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, CEC Kumar asserted that the commission doesn’t differentiate between the ruling party and the Opposition.
“Every party is the same for us,” he said, adding that neither the Election Commission nor the voters are afraid of such false allegations.
Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s August 7 “vote chori” allegations, the CEC said, “The Election Commission has a graded response on that. If you are a voter in any assembly constituency, and bring the problems within the prescribed timeframe, then you need to fill Form 7. If you are a voter in any assembly constituency and bring the mistakes after the prescribed timeframe, then it is only considered a political statement. If you point out mistakes after the prescribed time and level allegations of theft on the voters and the Election Commission, then there is a difference in the grading of these three scenarios.”
Give a signed oath or apologise in 7 days: CEC to Rahul
CEC Kumar reiterated that the Congress leader must give a signed oath over his allegations within seven days or will have to apologise.
“An affidavit will have to be given or an apology will have to be made to the country. There is no third option. If the affidavit is not received within 7 days, it means that all these allegations are baseless…,” Kumar said.
Earlier in the day, while addressing a gathering at the Vote Adhikar Yatra in Bihar’s Sasaram, Rahul Gandhi said that he was being asked to give an oath for the data that belongs to the Election Commission.
He also stated that while he was being asked for the oath, BJP leader Anurag Thakur, who also made similar claims about voter fraud in constituencies where the Congress was not asked for the same.
On allegations of Maharashtra poll rigging
Meanwhile, referring to Rahul’s claim regarding “magical addition of one crore voters” in Maharashtra before assembly elections, the Chief Election Commissioner asked the Congress leader why these claims and objections were not filed on time.
“Allegations were made that the voter list in Maharashtra had increased. When there was a draft list, why were the claims and objections not submitted on time? When the results came, it was said that this was wrong. To date, the Chief Election Officer of Maharashtra has not received the name of a single voter with proof. It has been eight months since the elections were held… It was also asked how so much voting happened in the last one hour? The Election Commission had replied that if there is voting for 10 hours, then the average is 10% every hour… If you keep saying anything 10 times, 20 times, it does not become true. The sun rises only in the east. It does not rise in the west just because someone says so,” he said.
On Rahul’s ECI not giving machine-readable voter list claim
Rahul Gandhi, during his August 7 presser on “vote chori” had said that it took them six months to share what he described as “criminal evidence”, as they were given hard copies that were seven feet tall when combined.
He also slammed the ECI for not sharing a machine-readable voter list as it could have saved a lot of time.
On this, CEC Kumar said that sharing a machine-readable voter list is prohibited after the judgment of the Supreme Court, and is applicable since 2019..
“We have to understand the difference between a machine-readable voter list and a searchable voter list. You can search the voter list available on the Election Commission website by entering the EPIC number. You can also download it. This is not called machine-readable. Regarding machine-readable, in 2019, the Supreme Court also studied this subject in depth and found that giving a machine-readable electoral roll can violate the privacy of the voter. The machine-readable voter list is prohibited. This decision of the Election Commission is after the judgment of the Supreme Court and is from 2019,” he stated.
On Rahul’s demand of CCTV videos of the voting booths
One of the key demands of Rahul Gandhi is that they should be provided with the CCTV footage of the voting booths.
Reacting to this, Kumar said, “We saw a few days ago that photos of many voters were presented to the media without their permission. Allegations were made against them, and they were used. Should the Election Commission share the CCTV videos of any voter, including their mothers, daughters-in-law, or daughters? Only those whose names are on the voter list cast their votes to elect their candidate.”
On Opposition’s Bihar SIR allegations
The poll panel’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar has been the bone of contention between the Opposition and the Election Commission ever since it was launched. The Opposition has called the SIR a conspiracy to steal the Bihar elections.
Reacting to the allegations, CEC Kumar said,”Some people are misleading that why the SIR exercise is being carried out in such a hurry? Should the voter list be rectified before or after the elections? The Election Commission is not saying this; the Representation of the People Act says that you have to rectify the voter list before every election. This is the legal responsibility of the Election Commission. Then the question arose whether the Election Committee would be able to reach more than seven crore voters of Bihar? The truth is that the work started on 24th June. The entire process was completed by about the 20th of July…”
He further added, “I want to make it clear that according to the Constitution of India, only Indian citizens can vote for the election of MP and MLA. People from other countries do not have the right. If such people have filled out the enumeration form, then during the SIR process, they will have to prove their nationality by submitting some documents. Their names will be removed after the investigation.”