The head of India's election body, Gynaesh Kumar, is strongly defending his organization against serious accusations. He says that some political parties are spreading false information about the voter list cleanup happening in Bihar.
Gynaesh Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), held a press conference to address the issue directly. He called the claims of "vote theft" and "double voting" totally false. He explained that the Election Commission (EC) is simply doing its legal duty to update and fix the voter lists before the upcoming elections. This process is called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
These comments came after a group of opposition parties, called the INDIA bloc, started a protest march in Bihar. They claim that the Election Commission is trying to "steal votes" by unfairly adding and removing names from the voter lists. A key leader, Rahul Gandhi, even accused the EC of working with the ruling party to "steal" elections.
Kumar completely rejected these claims. He said it is a "myth" that the voter list update was done in a rush. He urged all political parties to work with the EC and pointed out that they still have 15 days to officially challenge any names on the draft list.
"The doors of the Election Commission are open to everyone," Kumar stated, emphasizing that the EC treats all political parties, both the ruling and the opposition in the same way. He added that making such serious accusations without filing a formal complaint is an "insult" to the country's Constitution.
The CEC explained that the cleanup became necessary because many people had moved and ended up with more than one voter card without even knowing it. He also questioned how "vote theft" could happen in a process that involves more than a crore of employees and is meant to be transparent.
Kumar ended by saying that the EC is not afraid of these "baseless allegations" and will continue its work to serve all voters, no matter what kind of politics is being played.
