New Delhi: Facing brickbats for its allegedly opaque and partisan functioning, the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday (August 17) attacked “a few political parties” for “creating confusion among voters” regarding the ongoing “special intensive revision” (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.In his briefing to the press at the National Media Centre in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said, “It is a matter of great concern that a few political parties have made allegations of vote chori [vote theft], despite the fact that their own booth-level agents have received and formally attested the [corrected] electoral rolls [in the first stage of SIR]. This only means that either the voices of district leaders of political parties are not being properly conveyed to their national leaders, or there is a deliberate attempt to create confusion among voters.”Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi’s presentation on alleged “vote chori” in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, he said, “If someone thinks that he can use a PPT presentation to falsify data and misinterpret facts, then that act is against both the law and constitution.”He added that the EC stands with every voter “like a rock” and gave an assurance that no eligible voter will be deleted without a reason.The EC’s press conference came on the heels of the Supreme Court’s interim order in which it asked the poll body to take into account Aadhaar as one of the documents to verify a person’s voting eligibility.The EC had earlier announced that the SIR will verify voters only on the basis of a list of 11 documents that did not contain usual identity proofs like Aadhaar, elector photo ID cards (EPICs), ration cards or PAN cards.It later went on to challenge the Supreme Court’s recommendation to use Aadhaar and EPICs in the SIR. However, the court’s interim order defied the EC’s insistence on not using Aadhaar.Kumar, however, said on Sunday that following the Supreme Court order, the EC will use Aadhaar as proof of eligibility for “aggrieved” people who have been deleted from the draft electoral list. “Those who are aggrieved, the EC will take their Aadhaar,” Kumar said.He said that the EC is a constitutional institution and that it has neither a “paksh” nor a “vipaksh” (i.e. that it neither favours nor opposes anyone).“It doesn’t matter which party one belongs to. The EC will not back down on its constitutional duties,” he said.The context of the EC and the opposition’s face-off writ large on the poll body’s briefing, in which Kumar took digs at the opposition while answering questions by the press, but cautiously responded to all the questions that the Supreme Court had raised during its hearings on SIR.Kumar repeated the EC’s claim that it received no formal “claims and objections” from political parties – which it had earlier claimed on Saturday – and added that the 28,370 complaints it received regarding corrections in the draft electoral rolls were given by common electors.Recently, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav told the BBC in an interview that the EC’s claim was a lie and that its booth-level agents have given numerous complaints which the commission has not entertained.“How is it possible that the leaders are leading a campaign against the SIR nationally, but not opposing it where it matters – that is, on the ground?” Yadav had remarked.The CEC, however, stuck to his claim that the EC hasn’t received any complaint from political parties, and appealed multiple times to them to formally lodge objections to wrongfully deleted names by September 1.“I want to tell everyone that the political parties and aggrieved voters should raise their complaint in another 15 days. Fifteen days still remain [before the electoral rolls are finalised]. After that no complaint will be entertained,” Kumar said.He added: “The EC appeals to all political parties, their booth-level agents and national political parties to raise their complaints and point out any mistake [in the draft electoral rolls] in the next 15 days. The EC’s doors are open for all equally. Everyone is doing their jobs transparently,” Kumar said.Taking another dig at Lok Sabha leader of opposition Gandhi, who pointed out alleged errors in Bangalore Central’s electoral rolls, Kumar said: “If you do not raise a complaint against errors in the electoral rolls within a period of prescribed 45 days, and then go on to use wrong words like “vote chori”, is it not a way to mislead the public? It also shows disrespect towards India’s constitution. What is it, if not this?”Kumar said the SIR process also saw over one lakh new enrollment forms, and that following their verification new voters will be added to the existing lists.“We are committed to making the SIR a success. Bihar’s over-seven crore electors are standing up for the EC, so there is no question over the EC’s integrity,” he said.Responding to a question over the SIR’s timing, Kumar asked, “Tell me, should the cleaning up of electoral rolls happen before elections or after the elections?”On the issue of petitioners in the Supreme Court highlighting the need for the EC to share “machine-readable” electoral lists, Kumar said: “The Supreme Court has already said in 2019 that such a list would compromise voters’ privacy. Some political parties recently showed electors’ details in public. They are breaching their privacy.”“The SIR was done in the presence of over ten lakh booth-level agents and over 20 lakh agents of aspiring candidates. How can ‘vote chori’ happen when the SIR process is being conducted with so much transparency and in the presence of so many people?” Kumar asked.“We are not scared. I want to make it very clear today that the EC will conduct its duties with fearlessness and ensure that no one is discriminated against on the basis of class and faith. The EC stood with Indian voters like a rock, stands with them like a rock and will continue to be with them like a rock,” Kumar said.He said that the EC initiated the SIR as it had become “necessary” after political parties consistently raised serious concerns about duplications, wrongful additions and deletions in the electoral rolls.Kumar added that an SIR wasn’t conducted in the last 20 years, and although a summary revision has been done annually, an SIR entails an “intensive” correction in which “booth-level officers visit every door” and “make a completely new list on the basis of enumeration forms”.“The SIR aims to bring maximum purity in electoral rolls,” Kumar said.To those asking questions about the SIR’s short time frame, Kumar said that even the 2003 SIR was conducted within a month, from “July 14 to August 14”.He said that after the Supreme Court’s interim order, the EC will create district-wise websites to check and verify all electors “within 56 hours” of the order.The CEC also claimed that the 22 lakh deceased persons among the total of 65 lakh names deleted from the draft rolls encompassed not only those who died between January – when the last summary revision of the rolls was conducted – and June this year, but all those who died in the last 20 years.However, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra immediately responded to this claim as “ludicrous and laughable”. She questioned the CEC about the efficiency of the summary revisions the EC conducts every year, and asked whether the deceased voters were not factored in at all over the last 20 years during the summary revisions.The poll chief briefly touched upon concerns on whether the EC has the power to test people’s citizenship. Kumar said Article 326 clearly says that only citizens have the right to vote, and thus the verification of citizenship is within EC’s domain of powers.Crucially, the Supreme Court in its first hearing had said that the Union home ministry and not the EC has the right to verify a person’s citizenship.The EC later challenged the apex court’s observation in an affidavit, citing the interpretation of Article 326 that Kumar advanced on Sunday.