Journalism of Courage
ON THE day Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi launched the “Voter Adhikar Yatra” in poll-bound Bihar accusing the Election Commission (EC) of “vote chori”, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday asked the Congress leader to either submit his allegations in a sworn affidavit within seven days or apologise to the nation.
In his first press conference since assuming office in February, Kumar termed recent allegations of discrepancies in the electoral roll made by Opposition leaders, particularly Gandhi’s press conference on August 7, as “misinformation”, saying that there was no evidence.
Gandhi had presented findings of the Congress’s six-month study of electoral rolls of Mahadevapura Assembly segment of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat in 2024, in which he said the party had found around 1 lakh allegedly fake voters. He said a similar template – of allegedly fake addresses, duplicate entries etc — had been used across the country.
Although Kumar did not name Gandhi or Congress, he referred to those who made a “PPT” – a reference to Gandhi’s presentation. He said there was no provision in law nor any evidence to issue notices to the over 1 lakh electors alleged to be fake. The CEC said there was a difference between the electoral roll, where names could be repeated, and actually voting, and saying that those electors had voted multiple times was akin to labelling them “criminals”. He said with migration, over the years many voters did not get their names deleted from their previous electoral rolls and the process was “legally difficult” too.
On the Opposition’s demand for CCTV footage of polling, the CEC referred to the release of photos of electors at Gandhi’s press conference and said this was done without their permission. “Hum ne kuchh din pehle dekha ki kaye matdaataon ki photo unki anumati ke bina media ke samaksh rakhi gayi, unke upar aarop lagaye gaye, unka istemaal kiya gaya. Kya apni maatao, bahuon, betiyo sahit kisi bhi matdaata ki CCTV video Chunav Aayog ko saajha karni chahiye kya? (We saw a few days ago that photos of some electors were presented before the media without their consent, allegations were made on them, they were used. Should the ECI share CCTV videos of mothers, daughters-in-law, daughters or any other elector),” he asked.
Kumar said no valid electors’ names would be cut without proof and that the EC was standing like a “rock” with every elector.
“Halafnama dena hoga ya desh se maafi maangni hogi, koi teesra vikalp nahi hai… Agar saath din mein halafnama nahi mila to iska arth, ki yeh saare aarop niradhar hai. (Either give an affidavit or apologise to the nation, there is no third option. If an affidavit is not received within seven days, it would mean that these allegations are baseless),” Kumar said.
The CEC said that as per the law, election petitions can be filed within 45 days of results, but there was an “unsuccessful attempt to mislead the public by using wrong words like vote theft”. “What else is this, if not an insult to the Constitution of India,” he asked.
Kumar said politics was being played by targeting voters, and some parties were using the “EC’s shoulders to fire”.
Referring to the Congress’s allegations of discrepancies in the Maharashtra Assembly elections’ electoral roll, the CEC asked why objections were not filed at the time. “This was remembered after the results were announced. Until now, the CEO of Maharashtra has not got even one such (fake) elector’s name, with proof,” he said.
On the Congress’s demand for machine readable electoral rolls, Kumar said the Supreme Court had in 2019 found that giving such electoral rolls could violate the privacy of voters.
Kumar said the issues raised by parties over the years would be solved by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
On the ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court, the CEC said voters, parties and Booth Level Officers of the EC were working together. But, he added, it was a “matter of grave concern” that the voices of the district presidents and booth level agents of parties were not reaching the national and state leadership.
Announced on June 24, the Bihar SIR is distinct from the annual special summary revisions or pre-poll revisions as the rolls are being prepared afresh, instead of existing rolls being updated. All 7.89 crore registered electors were required to submit enumeration forms by July 25 to make it to the draft roll published on August 1. In addition, all those who became electors after 2003, when the last intensive revision was done in Bihar, have to submit documents for themselves, and for their parents for those born after July 1, 1987, to establish eligibility, including citizenship. In its order, the EC listed out 11 documents that electors can submit, though leaving out the most readily available ones, Aadhaar and ration card.
The draft roll published on August 1 had 7.24 crore electors, with the remaining 65 lakh either being dead, migrated, untraceable or registered in multiple places, according to the EC. The 7.24 crore electors have time until September 1 to submit documents to make it to the final roll to be published on September 30.
Asked about the timing of the SIR, given that Assembly elections are due before November in Bihar and monsoon floods have hit several parts of the state, the CEC said the revision of electoral rolls is to be done before polls, not after and that the 2003 intensive revision was also carried out in the same season, from July 14-August 14.
The CEC did not reply when asked how many of the 7.24 crore electors were able to submit the documents so far and how many new electors had been registered. He also did not reply when asked how many Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar nationals had been found in the rolls so far, saying that any such individual would be removed during the SIR process. One of the reasons stated by the EC for conducting the SIR was to remove foreigners who had become part of the rolls in the past 20 years.
Asked why the EC was asking Gandhi to submit an affidavit and not others, including BJP MP Anurag Thakur who has made allegations regarding Opposition-held constituencies, the CEC said the voters of a constituency have the right to file complaints during the revision process, while others who are not registered there, can only give the same with an affidavit.
On one of the allegations, that multiple electors have “0” as their house address, Kumar said that notional numbers are allotted to those who do not have an address given by the municipality. He said there are “crores” of such electors in the country who have notional addresses.
Kumar said the names of the 65 lakh electors who did not make it to the rolls in a “searchable” form using EPIC numbers had been uploaded on the websites of all district election officers. The Supreme Court had ordered the EC to make the lists, along with reasons for deletion, public. In court, the EC had argued that it was not legally required to publish lists with reasons for deletion of the 65 lakh people.
