The Opposition is preparing to bring an impeachment notice against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged “vote chori,” sources said. Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi remarked that a decision will be made “very soon.” However, removing a CEC requires a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament, a number the Opposition does not currently have.

In response, Gyanesh Kumar strongly defended the Election Commission and hit back at the charges made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Without naming him directly, Kumar said the “PPT presentation” Gandhi shared was based on “wrong analysis” of voter data. He challenged the Leader of the Opposition to either file an affidavit with proof within seven days or “apologise to the nation.”

At a press conference on August 7, Rahul Gandhi alleged irregularities such as duplicate entries, voters registered with house number zero, and dozens of names linked to the same address. Kumar dismissed these claims, citing examples from Karnataka’s Mahadevapura constituency where the Congress had won despite alleged irregularities.

The CEC clarified that having a voter’s name appear more than once in the rolls does not mean duplicate voting. “Casting a vote twice is a criminal offence. When asked for proof, no answer was given,” he said. He stressed that electoral rolls and the act of voting are two separate processes, rejecting Gandhi’s claim that duplicate names amounted to “vote theft.”

OnBihar’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, Kumarsaid the outreach to over seven crore voters began in June and was mostly completed by July. He dismissed claims of rushing the process, noting similar revisions had been held during monsoon months in the past. He also clarified that claims of 22 lakh voter deaths in six months were misleading, as the figure covered nearly two decades.

Kumar reaffirmed that the Election Commission “stood, stands and will stand like a rock with all voters of all religions and all sections of society.”