Patna
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, on his visit to Bihar on Sunday, did not directly answer questions about issues raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. PM Modi has often spoken about “ghuspaithiya” (infiltrators), while Rahul Gandhi has accused the Election Commission of “vote theft.”
However, the CEC expressed full satisfaction with the recent clean-up of Bihar’s voter list through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). He said the number of genuine voters had been corrected from 7.89 crore to 7.42 crore. “Those not eligible to vote have been removed, and those eligible have been added,” said Kumar. He was joined by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr. Vivek Joshi.
When asked whether infiltrators were found during the voter list clean-up, the CEC did not respond directly. He also avoided addressing Rahul Gandhi’s allegation of vote theft. However, he asked Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Gunjyal to investigate if any booth was found with over 100 names from the same community, as claimed in Muzaffarpur.
A Congress team earlier complained about 247 voters being listed at one house in Jamui. The CEC explained that sometimes homeless voters are given the address of a nearby house, which could lead to such situations.
Kumar praised the work of over 90,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) who helped in cleaning the voter list.
He also shared new plans for the upcoming elections, such as smaller crowds at polling stations and special counters where voters can safely leave their mobile phones before voting.
On the use of Aadhaar, Kumar clarified it is only for identity confirmation and not proof of age, address, or citizenship.
The Bihar Assembly election dates are expected to be announced soon.
