In a rare press conference on Sunday, the Election Commission of India sought to counter Rahul Gandhi’s charge of “vote fraud,” calling such language an insult to the Constitution. Flanked by his colleagues, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar insisted that the poll body stood with voters and was above partisan politics.

But while the Commission came out swinging against political criticism, it ducked key queries from the press. Reporters asked how many undocumented voters had been found in Bihar’s rolls, how many applications were fully verified, and how many were rejected by booth-level officers during the special intensive revision. None of these questions received a straight answer.

Instead, Kumar defended the EC’s refusal to release CCTV footage of polling stations, citing privacy concerns. “Should the EC share the CCTV videos of mothers, daughters-in-law, daughters or any other voter?” it said. At the same time, it gave no clarity on why parties were not consulted before the revision exercise. While the EC pressed for an affidavit, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav pointed out his party had in fact sent the EC such affidavits on alleged anomalies.

All this cast a shadow over a press conference that seemed more intent on rebutting Rahul Gandhi than addressing voter roll transparency.

Here’s how prominent English dailies covered the presser.

The Telegraph

The front page had a banner headline called “Election Omission”. “Silence, obfuscation, bizarre logic: How EC tackled Rahul,” read the strap. 

The lead package gave equal space to two reports, one on the presser and another on the start of the INDIA bloc’s Vote Adhikar Yatra in Bihar.

The lead report pointed to pieces of missing information, such as the issue of CCTV footage, and unanswered questions.

The Indian Express

The lead package had three reports, one on the EC press conference, another on the INDIA bloc rally, and a third on how Bihar poll officials are trying to include more voters with their family trees. “Give affidavit in 7 days or apologise to nation: EC to Rahul as his Bihar yatra hits the road,” read the lead headline.

The Hindu

The strap as well as the third para of the lead report noted that the CEC refused the opposition’s demands for a machine-readable voter list and CCTV footage. “File affidavit in seven days or apologise: EC to Rahul Gandhi,” read the lead headline.

Rahul Gandhi’s yatra was the second lead on the front page.

The Times of India

The paper did not carry the EC presser as the lead report. 

The front page decided to carry NDA’s new vice-presidential pick CP Radhakrishnan as the main story, with the EC presser and Rahul Gandhi’s yatra packaged in a smaller space on the front page. 

Hindustan Times

Just like the Times of India, HT also featured the news about CP Radhakrishnan as a bigger story on the front page.

“On allegations of voters being listed under ‘house number 0,’ Kumar said this was ‘an inclusionary move’,” read the lead report continued on the inside page. While quoting the EC, the paper did not check what the poll panel’s guidelines on notional addresses actually say. While there’s space for such addresses, they must be specified as nominal in the voter roll, as per an EC instruction.

The only fact-check buried in the lead story came after mentioning Kumar’s clarification on double entries. “To be sure, the ECI in May had declared that the voter database had been ‘cleaned’ of dual EPICs.”

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has so far refused to present an affidavit. He has also questioned why the demand for an affidavit was directed only at him. “While I was asked to submit an affidavit after my press conference exposing ‘vote chori’, no such demand was made from BJP leader Anurag Thakur who made similar claims in his presser,” Gandhi said on Sunday.

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