The Opposition parties on Monday accused the CEC Gyanesh Kumar of acting like a BJP spokesperson
The remarks came while addressing a press conference with representatives of eight prominent opposition parties
The Opposition parties on Monday accused the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of acting like a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson as he failed to answer their questions on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and issues related to voter list irregularities, PTI reported.
The remarks came while addressing a press conference with representatives of eight prominent opposition parties like the Congress, TMC, SP, DMK and RJD hit out at the CEC.
"The right to vote is the most important right given by the Constitution to a common citizen. Democracy depends on it. EC is the body meant to protect it... But we can see that the CEC did not reply to the important questions being raised by the political parties, and is running away from its responsibility," Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said.
Gogoi added that instead of answering the questions, he attacked the opposition. "It would have been better if they had told why SIR was done in such a hurry, when elections are just three months away, without discussing with political parties; why are they in a rush to announce SIR?" he asserted.
Samajwadi party leader Ramgopal Yadav said that the EC asked Gandhi to file an affidavit for his claim. However, the SP had submitted affidavits with complaints of around 18,000 voters being removed from the list in 2022, but no action was taken.
"In the 2022 UP polls, when Akhilesh Yadav said names of SP supporters have been removed from the voter list, we gave affidavits, but no action has been taken," he said.
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra asserted that if the voter list, on which the last general election was conducted, is not correct, the Lok Sabha should be dissolved.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha claimed that "Yesterday we were looking for our CEC, we found a new BJP spokesperson". Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena (UBT) also accused the CEC of "behaving like a BJP spokesperson
The CEC had rejected the “vote chori” accusations and asked the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha to not use such dirty phrases and give proof.
