Malicious stonewalling: Randeep Surjewala slams EC over 'vote fraud' issue
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala has lashed out at the Election Commission, accusing it of hiding "voter fraud" with its "lame duck excuses" when confronted with evidence of "mass manipulation" of voter rolls.His remarks came after the Haryana chief electoral officer (CEO) on Saturday asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to furnish documents within 10 days in support of his claims about anomalies in electoral rolls in the 2024 State assembly polls.The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha on August 7 claimed that the difference between winning and losing the Haryana elections for the Congress was 22,779 votes in the entire state.Posting the EC communication to Gandhi on X, Surjewala said, "When confronted with evidence of mass manipulation of voter rolls, the Election Commission seeks to hide the 'voter fraud' with its lame duck excuses, puerile legalese and fake technicalities. No wonder that it is now named as 'Election Capture of India' - ECI."He said the "malicious stonewalling and obfuscation" of the Election Commission to address the issue of "vote theft" and hide behind excuses establishes its "fear of truth"."Not once has the ECI and BJP said that Rahul ji's assertion of vote theft is wrong," he said."The EC is not a passive clerk of electoral paperwork. It is a constitutional guardian of the level playing field and free and fair polls, the lifeblood of democracy," Surjewala said."To evade scrutiny in favour of procedural smoke screens is not neutrality. It is an abdication of duty that corrodes the very democracy it is meant to protect," Surjewala charged.The Congress leader alleged that it is nothing short of a "crime" against democracy and the Constitution and these notices will not dilute the unpardonable "sin" it is committing.The Haryana CEO's communication to Gandhi on Sunday stated, "This is to draw your kind attention to this office communication dated August 9, 2025, referring to the statements made by you during the press conference held on August 7, 2025, pertaining to the alleged inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the electoral rolls of Haryana."Gandhi has been asked to furnish the particulars of the electors concerned, along with the "duly signed declaration/oath under Rule 20 (3) (b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.The Congress leader had cited data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to also claim over 1 lakh votes were "stolen" through five types of manipulations in an assembly segment in Karnataka.With Congress leaders amplifying the "vote theft" allegation of Gandhi, Election Commission officials on Saturday once again pressed the Leader of the Opposition to either sign a declaration to support his claims or apologise to the country for making "fake" charges.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
29 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Bihar SIR: EC data unclear if electors filing fresh applications are missing in draft rolls or are first time voters
Ten days after the publication of draft electoral rolls in Bihar, nearly 64,000 applications have been filed for fresh registration of voters, according to the Election Commission data on Tuesday (August 12, 2025). What is not clear though is that out of the total 63,571 Form 6 applications filed, there is no information on how many are first-time voters who have attained 18 years and how many are electors who had not filled the enumeration forms leading to their names not getting included in the draft rolls published on August 1. Form 6 is the application for inclusion of names in electoral rolls. According to Rule 13(a) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1961 on 'Form for claims and objections': 'Every claim shall be in Form 6 and signed by the person desiring his name to be included in the roll'. Thus, it is this form that new voters who have turned 18 years or above use for registration in electoral rolls. Political parties on the ground in Bihar have claimed that when one is not able to find their name in the draft rolls, people are approaching the registration officials concerned and are being directed to fill Form 6, which means that if a person has been voting for decades, but their name is excluded from the draft list, then they will have to fill up Form 6 afresh. And when the new electoral roll will be published, their name will be published in the new voter's column. So, it will be nearly impossible to figure out how many genuinely new voters were added in the electoral roll and how many were old voters. According to former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, this situation 'can be because the exercise of Special Intensive Revision in Bihar is being treated as a preparation of electoral rolls de novo and names not in draft rolls are not being treated as a case of deletion, but rather a case of application for inclusion'. 'Thus, in the usual process of revision of rolls, a notice is served on the person whose name is deleted which is not considered necessary here by the ECI as per their statement to the court. It is only after the publication of the final electoral rolls on September 25 that the DEOs would consider appeals against the decision of EROs and based on their decision, changes made in the electoral roll will be separately reflected,' he told The Hindu. The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard a batch of petitions challenging the Bihar SIR exercise. In the previous hearing, a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi cautioned the poll body that the court would 'not hesitate to act' if the revised list reflected 'mass exclusions'. The petitioners have criticised the SIR process as a form of 'citizenship screening'. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which has challenged the EC's June 24 order directing the SIR, last week moved a fresh application seeking directions to the poll panel to publish the names of roughly 65 lakh deleted voters, along with the reasons for deletion. The EC had responded that while the list of deleted voters has been provided to political parties on the ground, it was not bound to give the segregated list specifying the reasons for each deletion. It also said that no names would be deleted from the draft list without specifying the grounds for removal. According to EC data released on Tuesday, 63,571 Form 6 applications along with declarations had been received from new electors on attaining 18 years of age or above, while claims and objections received directly from electors with respect to the draft rolls for inclusion of eligible electors and exclusion of ineligible electors was 13,97,034 out of which 341 had been disposed of.
Time of India
29 minutes ago
- Time of India
‘Shameful is your deceit': Israeli envoy slams Priyanka Gandhi's genocide Tweet
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has tweeted accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, citing over 60,000 deaths including 18,430 children. Israel's envoy to India, Reuven Azar, rejected her claims as 'deceitful,' asserting that Israeli forces killed 25,000 Hamas militants and accusing Hamas of causing civilian suffering. Show more Show less
Time of India
29 minutes ago
- Time of India
priyanka gandhi: ‘Shameful is your deceit': Israeli envoy slams Priyanka Gandhi's genocide Tweet - The Economic Times Video
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has tweeted accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, citing over 60,000 deaths including 18,430 children. Israel's envoy to India, Reuven Azar, rejected her claims as 'deceitful,' asserting that Israeli forces killed 25,000 Hamas militants and accusing Hamas of causing civilian suffering.
