New Delhi, 17 August: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday, without naming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, refuted his allegations of vote theft and said that he should give affidavit in 7 days or apologize to the country.
The Commission will not respond to the allegations made by him without an affidavit. Also, the Election Commission clarified that errors in the voter list do not constitute fake voting.
In a special press conference organized at the National Media Center in Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar responded to the allegations being made by the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Also, he put forth his views on questions related to the process of special intensive revision going on in Bihar.
On Rahul Gandhi’s allegations regarding the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that he will either have to give an affidavit or apologize 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.
The Chief Election Commissioner made one thing clear that it is everyone’s collective responsibility to keep the voter list error-free. Errors in the voter list do not indicate fake voting or wrong voting.
He said that errors in the voter list are normal, because it is prepared on a very large scale under a decentralized process. There is also a process to draw attention to these errors. This can be done very easily at the local level before the voting. After the voting, an affidavit can be given as per the rules, which can be investigated by the Election Commission.
The Election Commission said that it has not received any such affidavit after the elections in Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. On Rahul Gandhi’s allegations, the Commission said that by just showing a PPT, the Commission cannot bring lakhs of voters under investigation.
He said that voter list and voting are different things – there may be errors in the list, but this does not affect the purity of voting. Making allegations on the basis of wrong data and PPT is like weakening the election process.
Kumar said that the political parties have been given the right to file objections in time, but making allegations after the time has passed is only politics. The commission reiterated that it is its responsibility to include every eligible person in the list and remove the ineligible. Regarding Bihar, the political parties have time till September 1.