New Delhi: The Election Commission of India [ECI] on August 1 rejected opposition claims of vote theft ahead of the Bihar elections, calling them baseless and irresponsible.
The EC said its officials should continue working fairly and transparently, without being affected by daily threats or false statements.
As per the statement from ECI, “Election Commission ignores such baseless allegations being made on a daily basis and despite threats being given daily, asks all election officials to ignore such irresponsible statements while working impartially and transparently.”
The ECI has also responded to Congress leader and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, saying he ignored official messages sent on June 12 and never raised any concerns through proper channels.
Terming his recent accusations and threats as “wild” and “deplorable.”
As per the statement of ECI, “1. ECI sends a mail to him on 12 June 2025. He does not come. 2. ECI sends him a letter on 12 June 2025, he does not respond. 3. He has never sent any letter to ECI on any issue, whatsoever 4. It is very strange that he is making wild allegations and has now even started threatening EC and its staff. Deplorable ! 5. ECI ignores all such irresponsible statements and asks all its staff to continue working impartially and transparently.”
Earlier in the day, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has levelled serious allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of direct involvement in large-scale voter fraud with the Congress having “open-and-shut proof” of the alleged theft.
Talking to reporters on the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the Congress leader alleged that the motive behind the voter fraud was to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Gandhi said that the findings of an investigation by the Congress amount to nothing short of an “atom bomb,” with implications severe enough to shake the very foundations of the ECI. He also warned individuals within the Commission and alleged the steps taken by the EC are “no less than treason.”
Meanwhile the Commission on August 1 rolled out the draft electoral list following completion of the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision drive in Bihar.
“Following the successful completion of the first phase (Enumeration Phase) of Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2025 in Bihar, the Draft Electoral Roll has been published today i.e. 1 August, 2025,” said the poll body in a statement issued.
It noted that the booth-wise draft lists of all the 90,712 polling booths of all 243 Assembly Constituencies has been shared with all the political parties by 38 DEOs of Bihar, today on 1 August.
The poll body stated that it witnessed unprecedented participation by electors with more than 7.24 crore electors of Bihar filled up the Enumeration Forms and included in the draft Electoral Roll.
It stressed that now is the time for ‘Claims & Objections’ that is from August 1 to September 1. The ECI stated that any elector or any political party, can file claims and objections in a prescribed form before the concerned ERO to add or delete names of elector in the mentioned period.
It noted that as per SIR orders, no name can be deleted from the draft Electoral Roll, by the concerned ERO/AERO without giving a hearing to the elector and subsequently passing a written order, which are appealable to the DM and the CEO.
[With inputs from agencies]
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