New Delhi, June 12 -- Speaking for the first time since Congress leaders accused the Election Commission of rigging the 2024 Maharashtra polls and manipulating electoral rolls, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar defended the process, calling it one of the world's most transparent democratic exercises.

Delivering a keynote at the Stockholm International Conference on Electoral Integrity in Sweden on Tuesday evening, Kumar said India's electoral exercise-- including the annual revision of rolls--is conducted under intense public and institutional scrutiny, describing it as "an act akin to concurrent auditing at every stage."

The event, hosted by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International...