Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has categorically rejected the allegations of “vote theft” leveled by the opposition during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of the pre-poll voter list in Bihar. He said on Sunday that neither the Election Commission nor the voters are intimidated by such “baseless” allegations. The statement came at the first press conference held by the commission after the completion of the SIR process in Bihar.
It is known that during the SIR process in Bihar and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the opposition parties had made allegations of vote rigging. Responding to this, Gyanesh Kumar said that in recent times some people did complain about double voting, but when they were asked for evidence, they could not provide any concrete evidence.
“Some voters alleged double voting. When asked for proof, no answer was given. Neither the Election Commission nor any voter is afraid of such false allegations,” CEC Kumar told reporters. CEC affirmed that the Election Commission “stood like a rock” with every section of society without any discrimination.
“When politics is being done by targeting the voters of India by keeping a gun on the shoulder of the Election Commission, today the Election Commission wants to make it clear to everyone that it fearlessly stood like a rock with all the voters of all sections and all religions including the poor, rich, elderly, women, youth without any discrimination,” CEC said.
He stated that the ECI doesn’t belong to any party and it will not step back from its “constitutional duty”. CEC stated that there is no discrimination in the eyes of the ECI and every political party is equal. “For the Election Commission, there is neither any opposition nor any party. All are equal. No matter who belongs to any political party, the Election Commission will not step back from its constitutional duty,” CEC Kumar told reporters on Sunday.
Kumar said that every 18-year-old or older must vote. “As per the Constitution of India, every citizen of India who has attained the age of 18 years must become a voter and must also vote. You all know that, as per the law, every political party is born through registration with the Election Commission. Then how can the Election Commission discriminate among the same political parties?,” Gyanesh Kumar said.
Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi in a press conference on August 1 had levelled serious allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of direct involvement in large-scale voter fraud with the Congress having “open-and-shut proof” of the alleged theft. Talking to reporters on the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the Congress leader alleged that the motive behind the voter fraud was to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Rahul Gandhi said, “Votes are being stolen. We have open-and-shut proof that the Election Commission is involved in this vote theft. And I’m not saying this lightly, I’m speaking with 100% proof. And when we release it (proof), the entire country will come to know that the Election Commission is enabling vote theft. And who are they doing it for? They’re doing it for the BJP.
The Lok Sabha LoP later on August 7 held a press conference in which he presented Congress’ research on voting in the Mahadevapura Assembly in Karnataka, Gandhi alleged “vote chori” (vote theft) of 1,00,250 votes. He launched a scathing attack on the BJP and the Election Commission and said that “collusion” happened between the poll body and the BJP, which resulted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi securing his third term. He also slammed the Election Commission of India (ECI) and alleged that the elections are “choreographed”. In the 2024 Lok Sabha Election, the Bharatiya Janata Party fell shy of securing a majority on its own, winning 240 seats out of 543. However, the National Democratic Alliance, led by PM Narendra Modi, was able to form the government by winning a total of 293 seats and crossing the majority mark.
