Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and escalated his “vote chori” charge against the Election Commission, after fresh reporting raised questions over the exclusion of 97 voters from Goa’s final electoral roll despite local election officials finding them eligible. Rahul Gandhi accused Kumar of overriding concerns within the Election Commission and offered him the chance to become an “approver”, or government witness, if an investigation is launched into the alleged irregularities. The controversy has opened another political row over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The allegations have been rejected by the BJP.
Goa election officials had examined 97 voters whose names had earlier been flagged and found them eligible for inclusion, according to an Indian Express investigation. Because the required software permission was controlled centrally, but Electoral Registration Officers were unable to reverse the earlier decisions through ECINet.
The report said the Goa Chief Electoral Officer’s office sent eight emails between February 11 and February 17 seeking the necessary rollback facility. On February 18, an Election Commission official instructed the IT division that the system could not prevent action required under Supreme Court directions and asked that the necessary facility be provided. The final electoral roll was published on February 21. The Indian Express said its check found all 97 names absent from that roll. The Goa CEO’s office issued a clarification on Thursday, saying the 97 cases were subsequently taken up separately through house-to-house visits and Form 6 applications. Rahul Gandhi also referred to another Indian Express investigation which reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had put objections on record at least 14 times over 10 months on issues linked to electoral rolls and the SIR process under Kumar.
It said many of the voters had since been enrolled and the remaining cases were being processed, adding that no eligible voter would be left out. The Congress leader claimed his party possessed evidence concerning electoral irregularities and said further action would follow in the coming months. The Congress leader directly targeted Kumar, demanded his resignation and accused him of involvement in electoral irregularities.
