Onus on ECI to clear the air on ‘vote theft’

LED by Rahul Gandhi, the Opposition is sticking its neck out in a bid to corner the Election Commission of India (ECI). Even as the Congress and other parties continue to oppose the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, Rahul has accused the poll panel of committing vote theft in league with the BJP during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He has given the example of Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, where around one lakh votes were allegedly stolen, leading to an ‘unexpected’ defeat for the grand old party. Rahul has also mentioned the modus operandi — duplicate voters, fake or invalid addresses, 50-60 people recorded as living at a single address, etc.

The allegations bode ill for our democracy, which has free and fair elections among its defining features. The ECI has not helped matters by being not-so-transparent at times. The poll panel has told the Supreme Court that it is under no legal obligation to prepare or publish a list of nearly 65 lakh names not included in Bihar’s draft electoral rolls or to disclose reasons for their non-inclusion. The number of ‘missing’ voters is substantial — around 8 per cent of the 7.89 crore voters who were registered before the SIR exercise — and it is not enough to say that most of these persons had died, migrated or were untraceable. Details should be made available to dispel doubts and rumours.

It’s also intriguing that the ECI has declined to provide vital information sought by an RTI applicant regarding its decision to reduce CCTV footage retention from polling stations to just 45 days. The reason cited — pendency of the matter before the apex court — is unconvincing as the Central Information Commission had said in its 2017 ruling that ‘sub judice’ status was not by itself a valid ground for withholding information. With its credibility at stake, the ECI can’t afford to be evasive. It must clear the air on contentious issues and let hard data do the talking to counter the Opposition’s claims. Failure to do the needful could make ‘One nation, one election’ unachievable.

Editorials