New Delhi, Aug. 11 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has had an impeccable record of setting up election booths - sometimes even for a single voter - in line with its mottos 'no voter to be left behind' and 'every vote counts'.

But in the past few weeks, large-scale deletion of voters from Bihar's draft electoral roll and allegations of voter fraud by leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi have put the election commission under scrutiny.

On 24 June the ECI announced the start of the special intensive revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls ahead of elections there. The process included verifying about eight crore voters in the state. By 1 August the first phase of the exercise was completed and data was released to the public. ...