'ECI Treats All Political Parties Equally': Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar Counters 'Baseless Allegations' On SIR

New Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar cleared the air on the row over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar and said that the constitutional body treats every political party equally and will not step back from its constitutional duty.

At a press conference in Delhi, he said, "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? For the Election Commission, all are equal. No matter who belongs to any political party, the Election Commission will not step back from its constitutional duty."

Elaborating further on the matter, he said, “The doors of the Election Commission are always open for everyone equally. At the ground level, all the voters, all the political parties and all the booth-level officers are working together in a transparent manner, verifying, signing and also giving video testimonials. It is a matter of serious concern that these verified documents, testimonials of the district presidents of political parties and the BLOs nominated by them are either not reaching their own state level or national level leaders or an attempt is being made to spread confusion by ignoring the ground reality.”

"The truth is that step by step all the stakeholders are committed, trying and working hard to make the SIR of Bihar a complete success. When more than seven crore voters of Bihar are standing with the Election Commission, then neither can any question mark be raised on the credibility of the Election Commission nor on the credibility of the voters," he added.

Kumar addressed the allegations around SIR and stated, "SIR has been started in Bihar. 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLA) have prepared a draft list...As this draft list was being prepared in every booth, the Booth Level Agents of all political parties verified it with their signatures...Voters have submitted a total of 28,370 claims and objections."

"We saw a few days ago that photos of many voters were presented to the media without their permission. Allegations were made against them, they were used. Should the Election Commission share the CCTV videos of any voter including their mothers, daughters-in-law, daughters? Only those whose names are in the voter list cast their votes to elect their candidate," he also said.

Responding to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's "vote chori" claims, he said, "In the process of Lok Sabha elections, more than one crore employees, more than 10 lakh booth level agents, more than 20 lakh polling agents of candidates work for the elections. In such a transparent process in front of so many people, can any voter steal votes?"

The Chief Election Commissioner said that the constitutional body is not afraid of the allegations made against it and will continue to function impartially.

"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. 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 the Election Commission 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, is standing and will continue to stand," he said.

He also suspects foul play in making "baseless allegations" beyond the 45-day period after the declaration of results in which political parties can go to the Supreme Court and file an election petition.

"Even after the returning officer declares the results, there is a provision in the law that within a period of 45 days, political parties can go to the Supreme Court and file an election petition to challenge the election. After this 45-day period, making such baseless allegations, be it in Kerala, Karnataka, or Bihar. When that 45-day period after the elections is over and during that period, no candidate or political party finds any irregularity, then today, after so many days, the voters and people of the country understand the intention behind making such baseless allegations," he said.

"As far as the machine-readable voter list is concerned, the Supreme Court has already said in 2019 that this could be a violation of voter privacy," he added.

Also Read: Pakistan's False Narrative Busted: Gallantry Awards Reveal Number Of Casualties During Military Tensions With India