The Commission has taken a tough stand after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission (ECI) of ‘vote theft’. Chief Election Commissioner Dnyanesh Kumar has demanded Gandhi to submit an affidavit within seven days or apologize in public. He warned that Gandhi’s allegations would be considered as ‘baseless and invalid’ for not doing so.
Rahul Gandhi accused the alleged rigging in the voter list in Mahadevpura assembly constituency, in which he explained the reason for the defeat by 1,14,000 votes to disturb the list. He alleged that duplicate votes, illegal addresses, and other discrepancies were found in the list.
On this, the Election Commission demanded an affidavit from Gandhi, but Gandhi rejected it. He said that he has already sworn in the Constitution in Parliament and has publicly presented the allegations. Congress leader DK Shivkumar also termed the demand of the Commission as unfair and said that it is the responsibility of the Commission to investigate these allegations.
At the same time, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot termed the demand for the commission’s affidavit as ‘completely absurd’ and said that this is an attempt to save the image of the Commission. He also questioned whether the Commission has ever demanded affidavit in such cases before.
Amidst the controversy, the opposition parties have questioned the fairness of the Election Commission and alleged that the Commission is working in favor of the ruling BJP. At the same time, the BJP has termed the allegations of opposition parties as baseless and said that these allegations are the result of disappointment of defeat.
The Supreme Court has also intervened in this case and ordered the Commission to make public public due to the list of 65 lakh voters by August 19 and their removal. This order is considered a major victory for opposition parties.
It remains to be seen in which direction this dispute between the Election Commission and Rahul Gandhi moves forward and what effect it has on the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.
