Former Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat has called the Election Commission "impartial" and welcomed its press conference to clear the air over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Declining to comment on the controversy over Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's allegations of "vote theft", Rawat said he had not heard the commission's response during the press conference on Sunday.
In his first press conference after Gandhi levelled allegations of "vote chori" in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and several opposition leaders flagged issues about SIR in Bihar, CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday asked the Congress MP to either apologise or back his claims with a signed affidavit as required under electoral rules.
Rawat stressed the poll panel functions in an "impartial" way.
"The Election Commission's press conference should be welcomed because it is a good step to clear public doubts regarding the SIR process (in Bihar) and other issues," Rawat told PTI in Indore.
To another question, he said the final electoral rolls are already made public, so the demand to release them again is not unreasonable.
"Getting one's name enrolled in the electoral roll strengthens democracy. Privacy is not an issue here. It arises only when personal details of voters are shared with individuals having vested interests," he noted.
Asked about allegations of bogus voting, Rawat said the possibility of a person voting more than once in an election is “negligible” because of strict verification of documents at polling stations and the application of indelible ink on an elector's finger before casting vote.