Give affidavit or apologise: CEC Gyanesh Kumar hits back at Rahul Gandhi

Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi for his ‘vote theft’ charges against the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday served a seven-day ultimatum on the Congress leader to submit a signed affidavit to back his claims, else his allegations will be considered baseless and invalid. 

In his first press conference after Gandhi levelled allegations of ‘vote chori’ in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and several opposition leaders flagged issues about revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, a combative Kumar asked Gandhi to either apologise or back his claims with a signed affidavit as required under electoral rules. 

“Give an affidavit or apologise to the nation. There is no third option. If an affidavit is not given within seven days, this means that all allegations are baseless,” said Kumar, flanked by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. 

 

The remarks by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) came on a day when Gandhi-led opposition launched the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar and stepped up attack against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state. 

Kumar said the SIR exercise was aimed at removing all shortcomings in the voter list and it is a matter of grave concern that some parties are spreading misinformation about it, “firing from the Election Commission’s shoulder”. 

“If one thinks that by making a PPT presentation with wrong facts, the ECI will act, that is not the case. EC cannot act without the affidavit in such a serious matter as it would be against the law and the Constitution,” Kumar said.  Levelling allegations of ‘vote chori’, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had on July 31, through a presentation at a press conference, cited data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to claim that over 1 lakh votes were “stolen” in Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka through five types of manipulation, including duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses and single-address voters.  

The CEC on Sunday admitted that there could be discrepancies in the electoral rolls and asserted that SIR was the only way to correct this. He, however, contended that a person being present in multiple voter lists does not automatically mean that he or she also voted multiple times. Kumar also said the poll panel has already identified and corrected more than 300,000 cases of multiple people having the same voter identity card numbers, but the duplicate voter issue of one person being listed as a voter at multiple places can be resolved only through exercises like SIR. 

Later, Gandhi hit out at the EC after its press conference, alleging that the Modi government brought in a law in 2023 to ensure that no one can take action against the poll body as it is “helping” the BJP and “indulging in vote chori” along with them. 

Addressing a gathering here at the end of first day of his Voter Adhikar Yatra which began from Sasaram this afternoon, Gandhi also said while he was asked to submit an affidavit after his press conference exposing “vote chori”, no such demand was made from BJP leaders who made similar claims in their presser.  “Today they (EC) held a press conference. I want to ask them why did the government change the law on CCTV footage of election process. “Do you know that no case can be initiated against the election commissioners.  In no court in India can there be a case against them. This law was made in 2023. Why was this law made? It was made because Narendra Modi and Amit Shah want to ensure that no one can take any action against the EC as it is helping them and is indulging in voter chori along with them,” he said.