New Delhi, 23 September (H.S.):

The Congress has questioned the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) following a report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had repeatedly recorded objections to decisions concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders, in separate reactions, raised questions over the role of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the addition and deletion of names from electoral rolls, and the conduct of the SIR exercise.

Kharge, in a post on social media platform X, said the Congress and several opposition parties had been raising concerns over the fairness of elections for several years. He said those concerns had not been taken seriously when they were raised. Kharge referred to the reported objections by the two Election Commissioners, saying that information had now emerged that they had recorded objections on 14 occasions. He also raised questions about changes to Form 6, the use of software, transparency in electoral rolls and decision-making within the Election Commission. Kharge claimed that 13.8 crore names had been excluded from the draft electoral rolls across 31 States and Union Territories during the first three phases of the SIR exercise.

Rahul Gandhi said the alleged “vote theft” from electoral rolls amounted to a crime against Indian citizens and a direct attack on the Constitution. He alleged that the Central government and the Election Commission had played a role in the matter and said that justice must be delivered.

Congress general secretary K. C. Venugopal called for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. He said that if one person could take decisions affecting electoral rolls by bypassing other constitutional authorities, it would constitute a serious matter. He said the right to vote is a constitutional right of every citizen and that any process affecting it must be conducted with complete transparency and in accordance with the prescribed legal procedure.

Congress leader Pawan Khera questioned the legality of decisions related to the SIR exercise. He said that if decisions concerning SIR had been taken without the knowledge or approval of two of the three Election Commissioners, despite the Commission being required to take decisions either unanimously or by majority, questions would arise over the validity of those decisions and the SIR process as a whole. He said the Election Commission and the Chief Election Commissioner now faced the task of answering these questions.

According to a report published by The Indian Express on September 23, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded written objections at least 14 times over the preceding 10 months to decisions and orders of the Election Commission. The objections were also communicated to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They reportedly concerned the registration of new voters, deletion and restoration of names from electoral rolls, the filing of appeals in matters related to the SIR exercise, and issues concerning the security and administration of the electoral-roll database.

The Election Commission, however, has rejected suggestions of an internal split, maintaining that decisions taken by the poll panel, including those related to the SIR exercise, had the approval of all three Election Commissioners. The reported objections and the Commission’s response have therefore emerged as competing accounts of the internal deliberations surrounding electoral-roll management.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar