New Delhi, Aug18 (UNI) The Opposition INDIA bloc today slammed the Election Commission (EC) over the issue of ongoing revision of the voters’ list in Bihar, accusing the constitutional body of evading critical questions and attempting to intimidate political parties through its recent press briefing.
The allegation comes a day after Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar dismissed the “vote theft” claims, reiterating that Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi should either submit an affidavit or apologise for making “baseless” allegations. He underscored that all political parties are treated equally by the election watchdog.
However, the India Alliance members who addressed the media viewed CEC statement as ‘threatening’. Congress spokesperson and MP Gaurav Gogoi criticised the ECI for what he called an “arrogant and evasive” response to legitimate concerns raised by Opposition parties.
“The Election Commission believes that making grand statements will intimidate political parties,” Gogoi said.
“To them, we say—officers will come and go, but the Parliament will remain, and it will stand witness to your actions.”
The Congress leader also said that when Rahul Gandhi was starting the ‘Voter Rights Yatra’ in Bihar against vote theft, the EC ignored his questions instead of answering the allegations and shirked its responsibilities.
“However, Members of Parliament are keeping an eye on its activities, and necessary steps can also be taken against it.
“The Commission is unable to answer questions raised by Gandhi and other political party leaders; instead, it is raising questions against political parties. The Commission is shirking its responsibilities, and this will not be accepted,” said Gogoi.
He said the Election Commission should explain why it deletes voting footage within 45 days.
Gogoi further said that the Election Commission, in its press conference, denied its responsibility to conduct free and fair elections.
“During the press conference, the Commission should have admitted its shortcomings and answered the opposition’s questions, but instead, it questioned the political parties and attacked those raising the questions.
“The questions were why the voter list was hurriedly revised in Bihar, how voters increased in Maharashtra, why the Commission is against the authenticity of Aadhaar, and none of these questions were answered. The Election Commission’s press conference made it clear that there are officials working in the Commission who are not impartial. Such officials are against investigations on any complaints,” alleged Gogoi.
Samajwadi Party’s Ramgopal Verma said in Uttar Pradesh, his party chief Akhilesh Yadav had accused the EC in 2022 of deleting voters’ names. The Commission had asked Yadav for an affidavit at that time, but no action has been taken on that affidavit so far.
“At that time, 18,000 voter names were deleted, including Muslims and Yadavs. We had complained, but no action was taken on it. The BJP government and the Election Commission’s intentions are clear: to find ways to deprive people of their voting rights,” he alleged.
At the same time, Manoj Jha of RJD said, “It is clear that the EC avoided responding to critical questions posed by the opposition. Instead, it appeared to publicly reveal the intentions of others. The Commission chose Sunday at 3 PM for its press briefing—timed strategically to overshadow the launch of the opposition’s ‘Voter Rights Yatra’ in Sasaram, thereby limiting the reach of the opposition’s message.
“Notably, the EC did not answer a single question from the attending journalists during the press conference. The opposition highlighted cases of individuals who were declared deceased by the Commission but are very much alive, with such revelations seemingly having no impact on the Commission.
“The CEC went as far as to claim that the opposition was insulting the Constitution by raising these questions. In response, opposition leaders stated: “The Election Commission is not the embodiment of the Constitution but an institution created by it. The Commission must not misuse the Constitution as a shield to undermine its spirit,” he said.
Mahua Moitra of TMC, Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena (UBT), Tiruchi Siva of DMK and others who spoke at the conference minced no words as they criticised the CEC for its biased stand in the matter.
