Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], August 17 : Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Mahua Maji on Sunday asked the Election Commission of India to clarify the "authentication" of documents presented by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, when he put up "vote chori" (vote theft) allegations on the polling body.
"The Supreme Court has stated that if people have doubts about Bihar, the Election Commission should make the figure of 65 lakh (excluded or deleted from Bihar draft electoral voters list) public...The issues raised by Rahul Gandhi and the documents he showed, claiming they are from the Election Commission... the Election Commission should clarify whether these documents are authentic or not, only then will the truth come to light," Maji told ANI.
Rahul Gandhi had on August 7 addressed a press conference in New Delhi, in which he presented Congress's research on voting in the Mahadevapura Assembly in Karnataka, a part of the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency. Gandhi alleged "vote chori" (vote theft) of 1,00,250 votes, including duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk registrations of votes at single locations.
The Chief Election Commisioner of India on Sunday refuted allegations of "vote theft" by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and asked him to either furnish a signed affidavit or apologise to the nation for his remarks.
The CEC also termed the allegations of bias by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabhas as an "insult" to the Constitution of India."...An affidavit will have to be given or an apology should be made to the country. Teesra koi vikalp nahi (There is no third option.) If the affidavit is not received within 7 days, it means that all these allegations are baseless..." CEC Gyanesh Kumar said while addressing mediapersons at a briefing at the National Media Centre in the national capital.
This comes amid heavy criticism of the ECI by the opposition parties over the recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state of Bihar.
Gyanesh Kumar mentioned that the doors of the Election Commission are always open to everyone, and the poll body is working together with everyone in a "transparent" manner.
"The doors of the Election Commission are always open for everyone equally. At the ground level, all the voters, all the political parties and all the booth-level officers are working together in a transparent manner, verifying, signing and also giving video testimonials. It is a matter of serious concern that these verified documents, testimonials of the district presidents of political parties and the BLOs nominated by them are either not reaching their own state level or national level leaders or an attempt is being made to spread confusion by ignoring the ground reality," Gyanesh Kumar said.
He informed that 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLA) have prepared the draft voter list in Bihar and till now, the voters have submitted a total of 28,370 claims and objections.