‘Submit Affidavit Or Apologise To Nation, No Third Option’: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's Stern Warning To Rahul Gandhi On 'Vote Chori' Claims

New Delhi: In a stern response to Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's allegation of vote theft, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday demanded that Gandhi file an affidavit within seven days or apologize to the nation for the claims made against the Election Commission of India (ECI).

At a press conference in Delhi, Kumar stated, "An affidavit must be submitted, or an apology must be made to the country. There is no third option. If the affidavit is not received within seven days, it will be assumed that all these allegations are baseless."

He also accused some political parties of misleading the public.

"Some people are questioning why the Special Intensive Revision (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 making this decision arbitrarily; the Representation of the People Act mandates that the voter list must be rectified before every election. This is a legal responsibility of the Election Commission. Another question raised was whether the Election Commission would be able to reach more than seven crore voters in Bihar. The truth is that the work began on June 24 and the entire process was completed by approximately July 20," he said.

Speaking about the decision to carry out the SIR, he said, "The SIR exercise has not been conducted in the last 20 years. This exercise has been carried out more than 10 times in the country. The main purpose of the SIR is to purify the voter list. The current SIR exercise is being conducted in response to numerous complaints from political parties."

Elaborating further on the matter, he said, "We must understand the difference between a machine-readable voter list and a searchable voter list. The voter list available on the Election Commission website can be searched by entering the EPIC number and can also be downloaded. This is not considered machine-readable. Regarding machine-readable voter lists, in 2019, the Supreme Court examined this issue in depth and ruled that providing a machine-readable electoral roll could violate voter privacy. Therefore, machine-readable voter lists are prohibited. This decision by the Election Commission aligns with the Supreme Court's 2019 judgment."

What Did Rahul Gandhi Say?

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during the 'Vote Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar's Sasaram district, vowed to expose any theft of votes, whether it happens in Maharashtra, Bihar, or elsewhere in the future.

"The entire country knows what the Election Commission is doing. Earlier, the country did not know how votes were being stolen. But we made it clear in the press conference how votes are being stolen. Whenever the theft is happening, whether in Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, Bengal, we will catch the theft and working to show the people," Rahul Gandhi said.

He described Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) as a "conspiracy" by the Election Commission, adding that the 'vote theft has been exposed' and the Opposition will fight against the alleged stealing of elections.

"I am telling you from this stage that Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections are being stolen in the entire country. Their latest conspiracy is to conduct SIR in Bihar and steal the Bihar elections as well by cutting the new votes and adding fake ones. All of us have come to this stage to tell you that we will not let them steal this election," he added.

Speaking about the role of the poor in preventing vote theft, he said, “Bihar's population will not let this theft happen. Why? Because poor people only have the vote, and we will not let vote chori happen.”

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