Prime Minister Narendra Modi was aware of a dispute over the Election Commission’s IT division restricting electoral registration officers’ access to the ECINet portal, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has alleged.
Ramesh said a complaint by election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had reached the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which comes under the prime minister, and alleged that the decision may have been taken at his direction.
He was referring to a media report that claimed an officer whom the two election commissioners had complained about to the Cabinet Secretary in July continues to hold a key position within the Election Commission.
“Instead of action being taken against him, the officer is now overseeing the controversial IT division of the Election Commission,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
According to Ramesh, the complaint to the Cabinet Secretary followed an order by the officer that removed oversight of the IT division, allowing it to function without what he described as adequate transparency.
Ramesh further alleged that the officer had been given responsibility for overseeing the IT division from August. He claimed this contradicted an Election Commission clarification issued in a press note on 26 September.
The Congress leader said the two election commissioners had raised concerns that the IT division was restricting electoral registration officers’ access to the ECINet voter-roll portal and overriding their statutory authority over additions and deletions from electoral rolls.
“The complaint reached the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), for which the minister responsible is the prime minister himself. So the prime minister is aware of all this, and it is likely taking place on his direction,” Ramesh alleged.
He further alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the prime minister had retained the officer to maintain centralised control over the system. Ramesh described the developments as further evidence of what the Congress has termed its “Vote Chori” allegations.
The Congress has repeatedly criticised the functioning of the Election Commission under Gyanesh Kumar and has called for his removal.
The latest allegations follow a report by The Indian Express claiming that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on record at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. The report said the commissioners had objected to decisions they believed had been issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
The Election Commission, facing scrutiny over the reported differences, has said that differing views and observations are a normal part of institutional deliberations. It has maintained that its orders have full legal sanction and are issued in accordance with established statutory procedures.
(With inputs from PTI)
