All parties are equal in the eyes of Election Commission, SIR in Bihar fully transparent: CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday said the Election Commission does not differentiate between political parties and remains committed to its constitutional duty.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is aimed at removing all shortcomings in voters lists and it is a matter of grave concern that some parties are spreading misinformation about it, Chief Election Commissioner Gynaesh Kumar said on Sunday as the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties launched 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in poll-bound Bihar against alleged "vote-chori".

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumarwhile addressing the media said, "As per the Constitution of India, every citizen of India who has attained the age of 18 years must become a voter and must also vote. You all know that, as per the law, every political party is born through registration with the Election Commission. Then how can the Election Commission discriminate among the same political parties? For the Election Commission, there is neither any opposition nor any party. All are equal. No matter who belongs to any political party, the Election Commission will not step back from its constitutional duty."

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar further stated that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar is being conducted in a transparent manner, with active participation from voters, political parties, and booth-level officers.

“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,” he said.

He expressed concern that verified documents and testimonials from district presidents of political parties and Booth Level Officers were either not reaching state or national-level leaders of those parties, or were being ignored to create confusion. “The truth is that step by step all the stakeholders are committed, trying and working hard to make the SIR of Bihar a complete success. When more than seven crore voters of Bihar are standing with the Election Commission, then neither can any question mark be raised on the credibility of the Election Commission nor on the credibility of the voters,” Kumar added.

On the progress of the revision, the CEC said that 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents had prepared a draft list after verification at every booth. “As this draft list was being prepared in every booth, the Booth Level Agents of all political parties verified it with their signatures Voters have submitted a total of 28,370 claims and objections,” he said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the whole country now knows that the Election Commission is "stealing" elections in collusion with the BJP and asserted that the INDIA bloc will not let them succeed in their "conspiracy" to steal Bihar Assembly polls by voter additions and deletions through the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

*With Agency Inputs