NEW DELHI: Countering the relentless attacks by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over alleged voter data fudging, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday said instead of creating a false narrative by using “dirty phrases” like “vote chori”, those who are opposed to the exercise should give proof.
In an official statement the ECI said, “The law for ‘one person one vote’ has already been in existence since the first elections in 1951-1952.”
It went on to add: “If anyone has any proof of any person actually voting twice in any election, it should be shared with ECI with a written affidavit rather than colouring all the electors of India as ‘chor’ without any proof.”
The poll panel further lamented that by trying to create a false narrative by using “dirty phrases” like “vote chori” for Indian electors, “is not only a direct attack on the crores of Indian electors but also an assault on the integrity of lakhs of election staff”.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had last week while citing some of the data alleged that more than one lakh votes were ‘stolen’ in the Mahadevpura assembly constituency of Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha in the 2024 elections, resulting in the defeat of a Congress candidate.
The Election Commission had then directed Gandhi to give a written declaration under oath on his claims.
Meanwhile, the Commission also said that after 14 days into the ‘Claims and Objections period’, not a single claim or objection has been submitted by any political party regarding the exercise of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar so far.
However, it said that the Commission officials received 23,557 ‘Claims and Objections’ directly from electors with regard to the Draft Rolls and so far succeeded in disposing of 741 such cases.