The Congress on Thursday accused the Election Commission of systematically excluding voters through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that Gen Z voters were being particularly affected by changes to the voter-registration process and claimed that the Election Commission’s ECINet software had played a central role in the deletion and flagging of voters.
Citing a report in The Indian Express, Ramesh said the Goa Chief Electoral Officer had written to the Election Commission eight times in seven days seeking the restoration of voters whom Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) had verified as eligible. He alleged that the requests were ignored and the voters remained deleted.
Ramesh also claimed that the third phase of the SIR process had resulted in 54% of Delhi’s voters being deleted or flagged and nearly 12 crore voters being affected across states. He alleged that EROs had been denied access to the ECINet system despite their statutory role in maintaining electoral rolls under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
According to Ramesh, two Election Commissioners had raised objections with the Cabinet Secretary over the centralisation of control over the electoral database. He further alleged that the process for adding new voters through Form 6 had been made more difficult.
“This is Gyanesh Kumar implementing the Method of Disenfranchising Indians (MODI),” Ramesh said, demanding that the CEC resign. He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah would be held accountable for what he described as the government's “diabolical designs”.
His remarks followed an Indian Express report claiming that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge. The reported objections concerned changes to Form 6, additions and deletions from electoral rolls, and centralised control of the voter database.
The Election Commission, however, rejected any suggestion that differences among commissioners undermined its decisions. In a statement on Wednesday, it said differing views and observations were a normal part of institutional deliberations and stressed that its orders carried full legal sanction and followed established statutory procedures.
The poll panel also said that all three commissioners, as well as its officers, were authorised to offer suggestions aimed at improving the electoral system.
(With inputs from PTI)