It also reiterated its comitmenrt to transparent and inclusive polling. Congress’ Rahul Gandhi has targeted the Election Commission over the deletion of more than 700 people from Delhi’s Bela Estate from electoral rolls, saying this was another example of vote theft.
In a post on social media platform X, he said while Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar “will go”, the “system that made him do this will also have to answer”. In its response, the Election Commission said the matter has already been addressed by concerned ERO, and the dates for filing claims & Objections have been extended.
Gandhi has been vocal with his demand for the dismissal of the Chief Election Commissioner since The Indian Express reported that the other two poll commissioners had disagreed with him on multiple occasions over voter list revision and inclusion of new voters. Now, the reports on exclusion of Bella Estate voters has provided fresh ammunition to the Leader of the Opposition.
Gandhi’s reference was to the Commission’s clarification that the names of the voters were struck off because the houses they lived in earlier were demolished in 2022-23 and the “physical and residential status of the area has undergone extensive changes”.
