New Delhi \u2013 The Election Commission of India, long regarded as the impartial guardian of the world’s largest democracy, is facing unprecedented scrutiny over its credibility and independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition leaders and critics have alleged that large-scale rigging of elections is impacting the overall results of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ECI has denied all charges, the first against it in India’s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heading the charge is the leader of the opposition in New Delhi’s parliament, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, who previously alleged that India’s electronic voting machines are flawed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now Gandhi has accused the ECI of refusing to share digital voter records, detailing what he said was a list of errors after his supporters spent weeks combing through vast piles of registration lists by hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gandhi, 55, said his party lost dozens of seats in the 2024 parliamentary elections because of vote rigging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The largest democratic exercise in human history across the country of 1.4 billion people was staggered over six weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gandhi claimed that the ECI manipulated voter rolls to favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Modi, 74, won a historic third term last year but fell short of a majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The alleged rigging involved a string of tactics, according to Gandhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said some people voted multiple times, citing bulk registrations from one dwelling and seemingly bogus addresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a presentation to reporters on August 7, Gandhi pointed to a parliamentary constituency his party narrowly lost as an “open and shut” example of the alleged irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over 100,000 “fake” votes were cast in the constituency, he said, courtesy of duplicate voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His Congress party lost the seat by just over 30,000 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Our demand from the ECI is clear — be transparent and release digital voter rolls so that people and parties can audit them,” Gandhi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ECI has called Gandhi’s accusation “false and misleading”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India’s chief election commissioner said they would “never” back down from their constitutional duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Politics is being done using the Election Commission… as a tool to target India’s voters,” Gyanesh Kumar told a news conference this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Election Commission wants to make it clear that it fearlessly stands rock-solid with all voters… without any discrimination and will continue to do so.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kumar also said those alleging fraud either need to furnish proof under oath or apologise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“An affidavit must be submitted or an apology to the nation must be made — there is no third option.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gandhi launched a month-long “voter rights” rally in the key battleground state of Bihar on August 17, receiving enthusiastic public response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The allegations come ahead of elections in Bihar in October or November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opposition alleged the ECI had embarked on a “mass disenfranchisement” exercise, after it gave voters in the state just weeks to prove their citizenship, requiring documents that few possess in a registration revamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India’s top court stepped in last week, allowing a biometric ID most residents possess to be accepted in Bihar’s voter registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of voter registration is set to be replicated across India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gandhi called the exercise in Bihar the “final conspiracy”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Activists have reported finding numerous living voters declared dead by election officials, and entire families struck off draft lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Voter verification in Bihar is scheduled to be completed by September 25, with the final list released five days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They aim to steal the elections by adding new voters under the guise of SIR and removing existing voters,” Gandhi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ECI has defended the registration revision, saying it is in part to avoid “foreign illegal immigrants” from voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of Modi’s BJP have long claimed that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India’s electoral rolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Criticism mounted after the ECI replaced Bihar’s machine-readable voter records with scanned image files that do not allow text searches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics said the changes made detecting anomalies more time-consuming and prone to error.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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