The Election Commission of India (ECI) will hold an unprecedented press conference on Sunday afternoon, a day on which the INDIA bloc will start its fortnight-long Vote Adhikar Yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav from Sasaram in Bihar. This will be the commission’s first media interaction following the launch of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and two Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi will address the media.
ECI officials are expected to address recent political developments, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of vote theft.
It is unusual for the poll authority to convene a formal press conference on issues other than announcing election schedules. The subject of the press conference has not been specified but officials said it is related to allegations levelled against the ECI.
The poll body press conference also comes days after the Supreme Court (SC) instructed the ECI to list around 65 lakh voters, who were not included in the draft electoral list prepared after the SIR with the reasons for the deletion of their names.
The EC and Opposition have been locking horns over the conduct of elections for some time and it has aggravated with the announcement of SIR in Bihar, which will be extended across the country in the coming months. Rahul has repeatedly accused the poll body of voter-data fudging and alleged that there was “vote theft” in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Haryana.
The poll body has asked the Congress leader to submit the names of those he claims have been wrongfully added or removed from the voters’ list, along with a signed declaration. The Commission has even gone to the extent of seeking an apology from the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha if he fails to give an undertaking to back his allegations.
The EC’s move to hold a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list in Bihar too is facing questions from opposition parties who claim that the move will disenfranchise crores of eligible citizens due to want of papers. The Supreme Court has also asked the EC to publish the details of the 65 lakh deleted names from the voters’ list, with reasons of non-inclusion, to enhance transparency in the SIR in Bihar. The Court has also directed the poll body to accept Aadhaar card as an acceptable document for establishing identity.
So far, the top court has only suggested that the Commission complete the process to consider the inclusion of Aadhaar and Voter ID cards for ensuring voters’ statutory correctness in the process. But on Thursday, the direction of the apex court--directing the EC to accept Aadhaar as an acceptable document for establishing identity--assumes significance in the case, as many voters have alleged that their Aadhaar cards have not been taken into consideration while the Commission carried out the SIR exercise.
The poll body began the Special Intensive Revision of the voter list in Bihar earlier this month, nearly four months ahead of the scheduled Stateassembly elections.
Addressing a press conference at the Indira Bhawan in New Delhi, Congress’ media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, said, “Whenever Rahul Gandhi ji has set out for a yatra, the democracy of this country has turned a page. ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ will be a historic march. It will prove to be a milestone in the history of our democracy. In a post in Hindi on X, Rahul said, “16 days, 20+ districts, 1,300+ km. We are coming among the people with the Voter Adhikar Yatra. This is a fight to protect the most basic democratic right - ‘one person, one vote’.” “Join us in Bihar to save the Constitution,” he added.
CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya addressing a press conference in the national capital also challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on infiltrators in the country, saying there has not been been cited a single case of illegal immigrants in the Bihar SIR. “PM Modi gave his longest Independence Day speech, but the important point is that the theme of Independence Day is now being reduced to partition,” Bhattacharya said.
“It is as if the Government is trying to finish the incomplete agenda of partition,” he said. The Left leader said that the 65 lakh voters who have been deleted after the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision in Bihar, none of them have been claimed to be foreign nationals by the Election Commission.