Double voter ID row: Cong slams EC over notice to Khera, his wife

New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) The Congress Wednesday questioned why the Election Commission "did not conduct" an internal inquiry before issuing a notice to party leader Pawan Khera and his wife for having two voter IDs and alleged that it acted out of vendetta to defame them.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi asked what the Election Commission (EC) was doing for the past eight years when Khera had written to it to change his address.

He said that on September 2, 2025, a show cause notice was issued to Khera and his wife, which was defamatory and accusatory, and alleged that it was done out of "revenge" as Khera had been raising concerns against the EC over Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

Singhvi said the record shows that Khera was registered in constituency number 40 in New Delhi and wanted to change to constituency number 41, which is Jangpura, where he currently lives or was shifting to at that time.

"Therefore, he is entitled to change, transpose, or transfer his name. He applied under Form 6, which is the prescribed form of the Election Commission. Form 6 comes under Rule 13. In that form, he disclosed that he was previously living in constituency 40 and now wanted to shift to constituency 41, Jangpura. The form was filed with the EC and receipted on August 18, 2017.

"What were you doing for these eight years? This reeks of a sense of vendetta and anger. Did you not have the wherewithal, restraint, decency, and fairness to conduct a simple internal inquiry?" the Congress leader asked.

Singhvi, who is also the AICC's Law, Human Rights and RTI Department chairman, said not only the EC shared personal information about Khera and his wife, but the language of the notice issued is "accusatory and defamatory".

"In other words, the mistake lies with the Election Commission itself, yet the accusations are being levelled against Pawan Khera.

"In 2017, when Pawan Khera shifted to Jangpura, he filled out a form to transfer his name to the new address, after which the Election Commission transferred his name to the new address. Pawan Khera also has a receipt for the process of transferring his name, which is dated August 18, 2017.

"Now, suddenly, eight years later, the issue of being registered as a voter in two places has surfaced while the task of transferring the name was done by the Election Commission itself. Despite all this, the Election Commission is issuing a show-cause notice and attempting to tarnish the name and reputation of Pawan Khera ji and his wife," he said.

Singhvi claimed that Khera was continuously raising questions with the EC in the interest of the public, so the poll body has brought forth an eight-year-old buried story.

"The truth is that this story itself is exposing the Election Commission's own flaws. If a political party did this out of a sense of revenge, it would make sense, but it does not behove a constitutional institution of the country to engage in such actions.

"The question is when a person has moved from one address to another, the Election Commission should have conducted an internal investigation before sending a notice. Even Kumbhakarna would wake up in six months, but the Election Commission slept for eight years and now it's dressing up its story in the garb of rules," he alleged.

Singhvi also asked why the EC did not take steps by itself which the court asked them to do in the first place, and why they have obstinately opposed everything unless the court directed them on Bihar's SIR issue.

"Did they give us any remote justification or reason till now as to why, suddenly, in July, when only four months were left for the elections in Bihar, this exercise was undertaken? In 2003, Bihar had a similar exercise, and it was conducted one year before the parliamentary and two years before the assembly elections," he claimed.

He said after 65 lakh voters were excluded from electoral rolls in Bihar, four orders had been passed by the Supreme Court till now. On September 8, they were forced to pass an order that the EC should please issue an official circular that it shall be implemented.

"The court was told that far from being implemented, there was an absurd situation on the ground. There were few electoral officers who had called for Aadhaar cards and were issued show cause notices by the EC. Is there an explanation for this conduct? "Is this the kind of conduct a custodian of the Constitution, a protector of democracy has to do? Then it took the highest court to remind the highest commission that inclusion, not exclusion, is the cornerstone of free and fair elections," the Congress leader said.

"A rushed SIR is a recipe for mass exclusion, not mass participation," Singhvi claimed. PTI SKC SKC KVK KVK