Amidst the controversy over the special intensive revision (SIR) process and allegations of disturbances in the voter list, Chief Election Commissioner Dnyanesh Kumar made a big statement on Sunday (August 17, 2025). He said that the Election Commission is not afraid of any pressure or false accusation.
Meanwhile, on the allegations being made by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, the Election Commission gave a direct reply without naming Rahul Gandhi and also said that if he considers his allegations correct, he would have to give an affidavit within 7 days and if he does not do it or apologize, the Commission will consider his allegations to be baseless.
Election Commission stands like a rock and stands up
Chief Election Commissioner Dnyanesh Kumar said, ‘Truth is the same which comes out of documents and investigation. The truth does not change, as the sun rises in the east, not in the west. CEC said, “The Election Commission is standing like a rock with the poor-rich, women and women and will stand like a rock.”
Chief Election Commissioner Dnyanesh Kumar said that the decision to start the SIR process was taken from Bihar because of this, because all political parties were demanding improvement in the voter list for the last two decades. SIR was started in Bihar to fulfill this demand.
Transparency and fairness is necessary in voter list matters
The Chief Election Commissioner said that whether it is Karnataka, Kerala or Bihar, only a notice cannot be issued to millions of voters by alleging ‘fake voters’. The Election Commission adopts concrete evidence and process of verification before any action. He clarified that transparency and fairness in matters related to voter list is paramount and no voter rights can be questioned without proof.
22 lakh dead voter recorded in record
The Chief Election Commissioner made it clear that it is not that 65 lakh voters whose names have been cut, of which there are 22 lakh voters who have died. Those 22 lakh voters have died in the last 6 months. According to the commission, 22 lakh dead voters recorded in the records have now been removed due to mistakes for the last 20 years.
The Chief Election Commissioner said that this is the voters whose family members, friends, relatives were not given any information about the names of those voters and their names were still in the voter list.
Ban on machine-readable voter list
At the same time, Rahul Gandhi is constantly referring to that the Election Commission is trying to hide the truth by not giving them machine-redundable data, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the Supreme Court has banned sharing machine-readable voter list in a 2019 decision, as it is a violation of privacy.
In such a situation, the Election Commission cannot reveal the personal information and identity of a voter, because neither morally nor legally correct. It is about the surveillance data, it is present on the commission’s site and any person can check his voter ID number and check whether his name is in the voter list or not. The Chief Election Commissioner said that the voter list can only be searched and downloaded, but the machine-readable version is forbidden to protect against tampering.
House number ‘zero’ in many places in voter list
The Election Commission said that words like ‘vote theft’ are equivalent to misleading the public and insulting the Constitution of India. In such a big and transparent campaign, where the agents of blo and political parties are verifying the list, there is no question of vote theft.
The Chief Election Commissioner, while answering the question raised by the opposition and Rahul Gandhi, clarified that the house number ‘zero’ is not mean that there is a mess. He said that there are thousands of citizens in the country who do not have their permanent house or their house number is not recorded, but they too are completely voters according to the Constitution of India and they have the right to vote.
Voter list uploaded on the website
Giving information, the Chief Election Commissioner said that after the order of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission has publicly uploaded the voter list on the website at the district level within just 56 hours. Along with this, this list has been shared on the booth level with booth level agents (BLAS) of political parties on July 20, so that transparency remains and all parties can get equal information.
Special intensive revision (sir) required
The Chief Election Commissioner made it clear that the Election Commission improves the list every year by investigating, transferred and investigating other matters during regular annual revision. Nevertheless, special intensive revision (SIR) is required because this process helps to make the voter list maximum pure and transparent.
The Chief Election Commissioner said that SIR is done due to demand of political parties, constant transfers of voters and other practical reasons, in which verification of voters is ensured by filling the enumeration form.
Claims and objections recorded
Amidst all this, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that there is a definite process to prepare the voter list. First the draft voter list is released, after which claims and objections are recorded to remove the errors present in it. This year, the time from August 1 to September 1 has been set to enter claims and objections.
The Commission said that there are still fifteen days left and there is an appeal to all political parties to submit the errors found in the draft list through the form. After this, the decision making process is completed by the officer and after this the final voter list is published.
Last voter list released on 30 September
The Election Commission has made it clear that the doors for all are equally open for all in this process. After the completion of this process, the final voter list will be released on September 30 and even after that, if anyone has objections, then he can appeal further to get his name added to the voter list under the fixed rule process.
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