New Delhi, Aug 10 (IANS) Countering Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations, the Election Commission of India clarified on Sunday that his claim that digital copies of the electoral rolls are not provided to the political parties is “absolutely false and totally misleading”.

Within hours of Gandhi repeating his allegation of “Vote Chori” (vote theft) against the poll panel, the ECI issued a factcheck saying, “Anyone – any elector or any political party – can download the Electoral Rolls for any of the 36 States/UTs through the link: https://voters.eci.gov.in/download-eroll and check for themselves.”

Looking to call out Gandhi on non-availability of digital copies of electoral rolls, the ECI said, “Under the Registration of Electors Rules 1960, every recognised political party is also provided both, digital as well physical copies of the Draft and Final Electoral Rolls.”

It said that before every election, digital as well physical copies of the Draft and the Final Electoral Rolls are always shared with all political parties under their signatures, including the Congress.

The factcheck was issued by the ECI within hours of Gandhi launching a website to seek public support for the Congress campaign against “Vote Chori”.

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi attached a short video in which he said, “It is critical that we expose Voter Chori.”

Addressing people in Hindi in the video, Gandhi goes on to urge people to support the campaign whole-heartedly by visiting its website and help stop the Vote Chori (theft of votes) taking place in the country.

Calling it a fight for the defence of democracy, Gandhi wrote on X, “Vote Chori is an attack on the foundational idea of ‘one man, one vote’. A clean voter roll is imperative for free and fair elections.”

“Our demand from the EC is clear – be transparent and release digital voter rolls so that people and parties can audit them. Join us and support our demand – visit http://votechori.in/ecdemand or give a missed call on 9650003420,” wrote Gandhi.

At an event in Bengaluru on August 8, Gandhi demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) provide the electronic voters’ list for the past 10 years along with video recordings. He warned that failure to do so would amount to the ECI concealing electoral fraud and a crime.

–IANS

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