Gyanesh Kumar further said that the ECI's door is open to everyone.
Chief Election Commissioner On ‘Vote Theft’, House No. Zero, Voter List Revision In Bihar Latest News
The Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday said that the Special Intensive Revision of the voter list in poll-bound state, Bihar, is being carried out because all the political parties have been asking for rectification of errors in the electoral roll. He said that house number zero “doesn't mean fake voters.” There are many who do not have a house number, he added.
In a press conference, the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said, "From the last two decades, all the political parties have been asking for rectification of errors in the electoral roll, hence SIR was started from Bihar. In the process of SIR, all the voters, booth-level officers, and all the political parties named 1.6 lakh BLAs have prepared a draft of the electoral roll. Its copy has been given to all of you. The BLAs of political parties signed on to it. To rectify the errors in the stipulated time, all the voters and political parties are making invaluable contributions."
Gyanesh Kumar further said that the ECI’s door is open to everyone.
“The ECI wants to appeal to all political parties, BLAs named by them, national level political parties, state level political parties, that if they find any error in the draft electoral roll, they can submit it with prescribed forms; the ECI's doors are open for everyone," CEC Gyanesh Kumar said.
The press conference by the Chief Election Commission of India comes on the same day, the INDIA Bloc, headed by LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched a “Voter Adhikari Yatra’ in Bihar against the alleged ‘Vote theft’. The Yatra was officially launched today and will culminate on the 1st of September.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in the press conference today, further said that ECI is not ‘intimidated by anyone’ and it stands with the citizens.
"Few voters accused double voting, when the evidence was asked, no answer came. The ECI is not intimidated by anyone. When politics is being done through the ECI, then the ECI wants to make it clear, that the ECI without any fear, is standing with all the poor, rich, senior citizens, women, youths, all the sections of the society, the ECI has been standing with them like a rock, will always be so."
He further said, "As far as the machine-readable electoral roll is concerned, the SC has already said in 2019, this can result in a breach in voters' privacy.”
Lok Rahul Gandhi, in his recent PowerPoint presentation, while allegedly exposing the ‘vote scam’, had used images of some voters as proof. He said that because the ECI allegedly refused to provide the machine-readable voter ID list, it took him and his team an extensive time to collect the data as proof to expose the alleged scam.
“We saw a few days back, photos of many voters were used in the media without their permission, accusations were put, and they were used. Should the ECI share the CCTV videos of voters, including mothers, sisters? Those who are in the electoral roll can only vote to elect the representative, in the process of LS elections, more than 1 crore employees, more than 10 lakh BLAs, and more than 20 lakh BLAs work. In such a scenario, is there any scope of vote theft?" Gyanesh Kumar questioned.
Gyanesh Kumar said that for ECI, every political party has been registered with ECI, and for the ECI, “ruling parties and the opposition parties are equal. The ECI will never back down from its constitutional duties."
When the CEC was asked about the ECI asking for an affidavit regarding the accusation of 'vote theft' issue, he said, "If a complaint comes because of a voter, the ECI examines, but if the accusation is about 1.5 lakh voters, then should we sent notices to 1.5 lakh voters without any evidence, or affidavit? Will voters not ask for evidence?”
“ Without any evidence, the names of valid voters will not be cut. If one thinks, by giving a PPT with wrong facts, the ECI will act, then it cannot act without the affidavit in such a serious matter, it would be against the law and the constitution,” he added.
He clarified that the 22 lakh 'dead voters' in Bihar are not only from the past 6 months but the deaths that took place overthe past several years. However, ECI said, the data on the deaths were recorded.
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