EC not scared of baseless allegations of double voting,vote chori: CEC

The Election Commission of India has said that using "improper words" such as "vote chori" amounts to insulting the Constitution. Addressing a press meet in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that the Election Commission was being used as a launchpad to target India's voters for political motives. Kumar said the poll body stands firmly with the voters. He accused political parties of targeting voters while placing the blame on the Election Commission.

CEC cited privacy concerns of voters to argue why it has not shared CCTV footage from polling booths in recent elections, even after serious allegations of irregularities levied by the Opposition led by Rahul Gandhi.He spoke specifically on why machine-readable voter lists had not been provided to parties, such as the Congress, that have alleged fake names and multiple entries. “The Supreme Court has already held in 2019, that it could breach a voter's privacy,” he said.

#WATCH | Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar says, "...As far as the machine-readable voter list is concerned, the Supreme Court has already said in 2019 that this could be a violation of voter privacy." pic.twitter.com/0vtzPlHxxe

— ANI (@ANI) August 17, 2025

“We saw recently, that some voters' photos were shown to the media without their consent; and allegations were made using them,” the CEC said.He said no proof was provided to back allegations of people voting twice.The commission also said that some voters had alleged double voting, but when asked for proof, no evidence was provided. The EC said neither the Commission nor the voters are afraid of such false allegations.

The Special Intensive Revision of voter lists, the Chief Election Commissioner said, was launched to address political parties' demands for corrections in the database. Kumar said there is a month-long window to make objections to the draft voter list and appealed to political parties to flag any errors. "The doors of the Election Commission are always open for everyone equally," he said.