Congress's Vote Theft Claim "Factually Incorrect": Poll Body
The Election Commission on Monday described as "factually incorrect" the claims of "vote theft" made by the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi during a protest march here.
The top poll body issued a "factcheck" on the claims made by the opposition INDIA bloc, which also led earlier in the day led a protest march against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
#ECIFactCheck
✅ Details in image below
Reference links 👇:
Link_1 https://t.co/w83gs0VlrG
Link_2 https://t.co/K8t2w39T61
Link_3 https://t.co/BMJ6OPViXQ
Link_4 https://t.co/tJ9z9abQeO
Link_5 https://t.co/AVNUZEwSAs
Link_6 https://t.co/RHiztyk9GD
Link_7 https://t.co/tqzG53EJfo https://t.co/1BBlNbMGEM pic.twitter.com/QPBW1XoxRb
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) August 11, 2025
The EC shared a list of documents in support of its claims of transparency in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. The evidence included video testimonials of representatives of political parties such as RJD, Congress, and CPI.
The poll authority also shared details of its meetings with representatives of political parties before, on and after publication of draft electoral rolls in Bihar, contending that it was committed to the highest degree of transparency at the field level while conducting the SIR exercise.
"Pure Electoral Rolls strengthen democracy," said the EC, which also shared a link to the daily bulletin issued by it since the publication of the draft electoral rolls.
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Hindustan Times
26 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Shubhanshu Shukla set to return home today; Parl plans special session on mission
The Lok Sabha on Monday will hold a special discussion on India's space journey and Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla's historic mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), according to a notice issued by the Lower House. Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta and union minister Jitendra Singh receive astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on his arrival at the IGI airport, in New Delhi, early Sunday,(PTI) The House will debate on 'India's first astronaut aboard the ISS –– critical role of space programme for Viksit Bharat by 2047', a subject that can possibly end the deadlock in Parliament to hail India's new milestone in space journey. Shukla landed in New Delhi in the early hours of Sunday following his two-week long mission aboard the ISS in June-July. The session has been scheduled amid the Opposition's efforts to raise the issue of alleged manipulation of voter lists and the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. Opposition leaders have sought a discussion over the SIR issue. However, the government has taken a stand that the House cannot take up a discussion on the matter as the case is sub judice in the Supreme Court and relates to Election Commission of India (ECI), an autonomous body, Protests over the same have led to the transaction of limited business in Parliament. 'But, given the nature of the debate on Shukla's journey to the ISS, there is a scope that the Opposition may join the discussion,' a senior Congress leader said on anonymity. In June, Shukla became the second Indian to go to space –– after IAF wing commander Rakesh Sharma –– as part of the Axiom-4 mission to the ISS. He returned to Earth on July 16. Alongside Shukla, the Ax-4 mission marked the return to human spaceflight programme for India, Poland and Hungary in over four decades. Representing the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Shukla's return with all the learnings and experience from the Ax-4 mission is an important step for the Gaganyaan mission and setting up the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (the Indian Space Station). In her address to the nation on the eve of the Independence Day, President Droupadi Murmu mentioned Shukla's feat and said, 'I am sure that Shubhanshu Shukla's space journey to the International Space Station has fired a whole generation to dream bigger. It will prove extremely helpful for India's upcoming human space flight program, 'Gaganyaan'.' The Department of Space described Shukla's mission as one of 'strategic importance' and India's resolve to emerge as a serious contender in human space exploration. During his address on the 79th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded Shukla's historic visit. 'Every citizen of the country is seeing the wonders of the space sector and is filled with pride. And our Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has returned from the space station. He is also coming to India in a few days. We are also preparing for Aatmanirbhar Bharat Gaganyaan on our own in space. We are working towards building our own space station on our own,' he said.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
What are the challenges confronting the EC?
The story so far: At a press conference on August 7, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission (EC) of massive electoral roll manipulations in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka. Mr. Gandhi's presser capped a series of allegations of deliberate voter roll discrepancies by the EC beginning with the Maharashtra Assembly polls. This, coupled with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, which is under judicial scrutiny, has put the poll body in the eye of a storm. What is the mandate of the EC? The Election Commission of India is a permanent constitutional body. The Constitution has vested in the EC the superintendence, direction and control of the entire process for conduct of elections to Parliament and the legislature of every State, and to the offices of President and Vice-President of India. Originally, the commission only had a Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). It was expanded to include two Election Commissioners (ECs). Why has there been a controversy about the appointment process? Parliament passed a new law governing appointments to the EC, namely the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. In accordance with the new law, the ECs are selected by a three-member selection committee, comprising the Prime Minister, a Union Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The Opposition had objected to this, saying the committee gave little room for dissent as the Prime Minister and the Union Minister are part of the government and could rule 2:1 in favour of their candidate. Why is the EC's role in the spotlight? Last year, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance had alleged that lakhs of new voters had been added to Maharashtra's electoral rolls in the time period between the Lok Sabha polls in May and the Assembly elections in October. The Congress had made the same allegations about Haryana, and later the Aam Aadmi Party alleged that voter rolls were tweaked in Delhi before Assembly polls. Even as the EC was grappling with these claims, CEC Gyanesh Kumar announced the SIR in Bihar which aims at cleaning up electoral rolls. The EC said the SIR exercise will be carried out across the country. At his press conference, Mr. Gandhi alleged large-scale discrepancies in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka which he claimed helped the BJP win the seat. Mr. Gandhi said his party had carried out an investigation which spanned over six months before reaching this conclusion. He claimed that the voter list had manipulated entries, including duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk registrations of votes at single locations. Following this, Mr. Gandhi reiterated his demand for machine readable voter rolls to be provided to all political parties for proper verification. The EC stated it has not been providing machine readable or 'text-searchable' voter lists for concerns over cyber-security. The Supreme Court (SC) had upheld it in a petition filed by former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath in 2018. When was a revision announced in Bihar? On June 24, the EC ordered a SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, barely five months before the Assembly elections. As per the SIR orders, every voter in Bihar who had not been listed in the 2003 voter rolls would have to submit documents proving their date and place of birth to determine whether they were Indian citizens. Those born after 1987 would also have to submit proof of their parents' date and place of birth. However, after the completion of the first phase of the SIR exercise, the EC released a draft electoral roll on August 1, which saw a drop in the number of voters in Bihar by 65 lakh. There were 7.89 crore voters registered in the 2025 electoral list before the SIR exercise; after the recount, it slid to 7.24 crore electors. The EC said that most of these 65 lakh 'missing' voters have died; are registered in two locations; have migrated out of Bihar; or are untraceable. Civil society organisations, Opposition parties as well as NGOs approached the Supreme Court challenging the SIR process. What has the SC directed EC to do? In an interim order on August 14, the Supreme Court directed the EC to publish an enumerated, booth-wise list of the 65 lakh electors not included in the draft roll. A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi instructed the EC to provide reasons for the deletion — death, migration, untraceability, duplicate registrations — against each name. The court also asked EC to accept Aadhaar as proof of identity for an elector to include his or her name in the rolls. 'That it has taken the Supreme Court to nudge the EC towards following basic norms of natural justice and fairness in the Bihar SIR exercise reflects poorly on an organisation which takes pride in collecting and counting every last vote. While errors can creep into voter lists over time, the answer to that is not mass disenfranchisement as the EC is attempting,' said Alok Kumar Prasanna, Advocate and Co-Founder of Vidhi Centre for Public Policy. What about migrant voters? Migrant voters still have to return to the place where they are on the rolls to vote. This is a huge cost and depresses turnout, notes Mr. Prasanna. 'There is no simple solution to this currently. The solution will have to be cheap, secure and transparent to work. Solutions which work in richer societies and for richer migrants will not work for poor migrants from States like Bihar,' he added. What has been the political fallout? After Mr. Gandhi's press conference, the Opposition upped the ante and tried to hold a march from Parliament to the Election Commission headquarters. They courted arrest when stopped. The ongoing monsoon session of Parliament has also been virtually paralysed over demands for a discussion on the Bihar SIR. The government has, however, not conceded to the Opposition's demand. The issue has brought Opposition parties together and protests are likely to continue when Parliament reconvenes on August 18. 'To protect the voters of this country and democracy whatever has to be done we will do,' Rashtriya Janata Dal Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha told The Hindu.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
How document deficits may risk disenfranchising the poor, eroding trust in the Election Commission
In the first part of this report, published in The Hindu on Saturday (August 16, 2025), we highlighted the substantial limitations on citizen access to documents asked for by the Election Commission (EC). In this second part, we seek answers to two questions: who stands to lose in the special intensive revision (SIR) process, and what it implies in terms of citizen trust in elections and the EC. On the face of it, and particularly for relatively better-placed citizens, the requirement of documents may appear 'reasonable' and easy to fulfil. But on closer scrutiny, it becomes clear that as one moves down the social ladder, this requirement becomes daunting and exclusionary. Uneven access Aadhaar cards are nearly universal across all caste groups, but other documents show significant variation (Table 1). PAN card ownership, for example, is highest among the general category respondents, with nine in every 10 respondents having a PAN, but falls to just over half among Scheduled Castes (SC). Passports are rare across social groups, with only about one in every five in the general category, and a mere 5% and 4% among SC and Scheduled Tribes (ST) respondents, respectively, possessing one. Tenth-class and domicile certificates follow a similar pattern, with higher possession among Other Backward Class (OBC) and general groups. Interestingly, caste certificates are far more common among ST respondents, with four of every five possessing one. In Assam, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) documents are almost universally held (95-99%) across all groups. These gaps extend to birth certificate ownership, as shown in Table 2. Less than half of any caste group have one, with SCs showing the lowest coverage (about one in four), while the general category fares better (two in every five). When considering entire households (Table 3), the proportion of families where every adult member has a birth certificate is even smaller — less than one-fourth in the general group, and just more than one in every 10 among SCs. The documentation status of parents tells a similar story of uneven access. Large numbers across all caste groups report that their parents lack key documents such as SSC certificates or birth certificates. Among SC respondents, more than eight in every 10 mothers have no birth certificate, and three in every five fathers lack a caste certificate. While the general category shows slightly better figures, the gap remains substantial (Table 4). Economic status Economic status further deepens the divide. Aadhaar coverage is nearly universal across all income groups, but wealthier respondents are far more likely to own PAN cards, passports, and educational certificates. Nearly half of the rich possess passports, compared with just one in 20 among the poor. Domicile and caste certificates also rise sharply with income. It is interesting to see that land/house allotment certificates are owned by nearly half the respondents across economic groups (Table 5). Economic location is similarly a major factor associated with exclusion of citizens in terms of document possession (Table 5). It plays a decisive role in birth certificate possession, both at the individual and household level, as shown in Tables 6 and 7, respectively. Among the poorest respondents, fewer than one in every four have an official birth certificate, and six in every 10 have none at all, while over half of the well-to-do respondents possess a birth certificate. This gap extends to entire families — only about one in every 10 poor households said every adult member had a birth certificate, compared with one in every three among the rich. Parental documentation follows the same pattern (Table 8), with poor households far more likely to report that parents lack educational or identity documents. For example, over eight of every 10 poor respondents say their mother has no SSC certificate, compared to just over two of every five in rich households. This may be because older generations in poorer households often had limited access to formal education and fewer opportunities to obtain official identification. The study further reveals the overall extent of document absence (Table 9). More than half of respondents do not possess a passport, one in five do not possess both a passport and a caste certificate, and 5% have none of the key documents listed. State-level variations Table 10 reveals striking State-level differences in overall document unavailability. Uttar Pradesh stands out sharply, with nearly three in five respondents lacking the required documents, followed by Delhi, where over a quarter face the same issue. The significant gaps in document possession, especially birth certificates, across caste and class lines, raise serious concerns about the EC's decision to make them mandatory for voter verification. Among marginalised castes and poorer households, large sections of the population either never had such documents issued or rely on informal records that may not find acceptance. Public perception Even without formal information about the social profile of possible exclusions, respondents are aware of who is going to be excluded. When respondents were asked who might be most affected if birth certificates became mandatory (Table 11), illiterate people and the elderly topped the list, each cited by over two in every five respondents. The poor, rural residents, and migrants were also seen as particularly vulnerable, along with smaller proportions among Muslims, SCs, and STs. Table 12 indicates that concerns about wrongful exclusion are widespread. Close to half (45%) the respondents believe that genuine voters may be removed from the rolls during the verification process under SIR, while only a quarter think this will not happen. This indicates a significant level of public anxiety that the exercise, if it insists on the documents asked in the Bihar exercise, could disenfranchise eligible citizens. Table 13 indicates that confidence in the EC's ability to ensure inclusivity is moderate. Just over a quarter of respondents said they were 'very confident' that all eligible voters would be retained on the rolls, while one-sixth expressed doubts and said that they had 'not much' confidence and nearly one in every 10 had no confidence at all. These figures suggest that while many still trust the EC to manage the process fairly, a sizeable share of the public remains unconvinced. When one analyses the data from the 2019 NES survey, the 2024 NES survey, and the 2025 documentation study, we see a consistent decline in high trust in the EC across all six States and a corresponding increase in the numbers of those who do not trust the EC. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, the proportion of respondents expressing high trust fell sharply from 56% in 2019 to just 21% in the present study, while 'no trust' rose to nearly one-third. Kerala saw a similar trend, with high trust dropping from 57% to 35% over the period, accompanied by increases in moderate and no trust. High trust is replaced by growing numbers who express only moderate trust (Table 14). The findings from the Lokniti study point out to the challenges associated with the way in which current exercise of voter verification is contemplated. Citizen access to documents is a complex issue. Verification process puts the onus on citizens for showing the documents but ensuring that citizens will be able to smoothly and routinely access various documents is the responsibility of government. As this analysis has shown, there is a marked social character to non-possession of documents leading to possible exclusion of marginalised sections. As an immediate consequence, EC is likely to take a hit in terms of popular trust and confidence in it. This is a very serious consequence because the high legitimacy of EC is an important part of elections being seen as free and fair. Moreover, this exclusion is not merely in terms of dropping the names of the poor and the backward from electoral rolls. At a more serious level, and as an unintended consequence of SIR, a stark fact has come to light — the less privileged members of society stand the risk of being pushed to the status of doubtful citizens in every sense. As governments more and more tends to use resources for the benefit of the poor and backward, the possible downgrading of those same sections for non-possession of citizenship documents makes them all the more vulnerable and helpless. (Suhas Palshikar taught political science and is chief editor of Studies in Indian Politics; Krishangi Sinha is a researcher with Lokniti-CSDS; Sandeep Shastri is vice president (Bangalore), Nitte Education Trust and national coordinator, Lokniti Network; Sanjay Kumar is professor and co-director, Lokniti-CSDS) Method note for the survey The study was conducted by Lokniti-CSDS in NCR-Delhi and five States, namely Assam, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. In each State, five districts were purposively selected, keeping in mind the rural and urban population in each of these five districts. In each of the five districts, four locations were selected keeping in mind the class profile of the people living in these locations, so that the sample has adequate representation of people from lower, middle- and upper-income classes. At each location, 25 face-to-face interviews were conducted with those respondents who were 18 years or more. Respondents at sampled locations were selected following a random walk procedure. At the location, field investigators identified a landmark such as school, hospital, or any monument and started to select households from there. They did interviews in such a way that the entire location was covered, leaving a few houses between the sampled households. The method comes very close to simple random selection of the voters for the interview. Total sample for which data have been analysed is 3,054; roughly 500 interviews in each State. The sample represented people belonging to different social profiles — 44% were women, 48% urban voters, 18% Dalits, 7% Adivasi, 12% Muslims, and 5% Christians (Christians in Kerala sample).
