NEW DELHI: The Congress, which has been at the forefront of ‘vote theft’ allegations against the Election Commission, is the only national party that has not turned up for the structured interactions being conducted by the Election Commission for the past 3.5 months with the top leadership of recognised national and state political parties.“An invite was extended to (the) President, Indian National Congress (INC) for (an interaction) for May 15, 2025….The party requested deferral and did not reply to subsequent communications from ECI for rescheduling,” the EC shared in a press note on Monday.After Rahul Gandhi had, in a newspaper column, alleged imperfections in the electoral roll and an unusual surge in votes cast after 5 pm during the last assembly poll in Maharashtra, EC had invited him for a meeting on June 12. There was however no response from Rahul.Even as Rahul is in the middle of his ‘voter adhikar yatra’ in Bihar to press his ‘vote chori’ allegations in view of 65 lakh deletions, EC on Monday said it has already received documents of over 99.1% of the 7.2 crore voters listed in the draft electoral roll. As regards the 65 lakh deleted names, a little over 1.4 lakh claims and objections (barely 2%) have been received so far, only 10 of which are from the party booth level agents and the rest filed directly by electors. For the past six months, EC has engaged 28,000 representatives of national and state political parties in 4,719 meetings, of which 40 were taken by the chief electoral officers (CEOs), 800 by district election officers (DEOs), and 3,879 by electoral registration officers (EROs). Thereafter, it held interactions with heads of five of the six national parties in May and of 17 state parties in July and August, hearing them on all issues of concern.“These proactive meetings are a new initiative by the Commission. The initiative aligns with the Commission’s broader vision of further strengthening the electoral process in accordance with the existing legal framework with all stakeholders,” EC said on Monday.
