The calls for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar have been snowballing across India. An investigation published by The Indian Express has exposed a rift within the Election Commission of India, putting Kumar under scrutiny over his alleged role in decisions concerning the electoral system.
Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls issued by the Election Commission of India. According to their objections, other key decisions related to electoral roll management, including the registration and deletion of voters and changes to statutory Form 6, were taken without their knowledge or approval.
Let’s take a look at the key points in the national daily’s report.
1.Sandhu and Joshi kept in the dark
Both Election Commissioners claimed that they were not involved in the process of taking key decisions and that orders were issued without their approval. According to Sandhu, he came to know about the new IT modules and portals of the poll body through the media.
2.EROs denied access to voters’ lists
Sandhu and Joshi alleged that state-level officials of the EC were being denied proper access to the electoral roll database following the EC’s steps towards the gradual centralisation of voter data in Delhi.
Joshi had raised concerns over the “gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database” and proposed an audit to ensure that only the concerned statutory authorities had credentials to make changes to the voter database. Sandhu later recorded that state-level election officials did not have “proper and complete access” to the system used to maintain electoral rolls.
3.Letters sent to Cabinet Secretary
Separate letters were sent to the Cabinet Secretary expressing concerns over the new electoral roll management platform, ECINet, and changes to the IT infrastructure.
The 2 Election Commissioners raised concerns about the way changes in work allocation could affect oversight of the IT systems supporting electoral rolls. They also questioned whether the changes were made without their knowledge.
4.Changes to statutory Form 6
According to the Election Commissioners, statutory Form 6, which is used for the registration of new voters, was changed without the required amendment to the relevant rules. Joshi argued that the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, must be amended before changes could be made to the form. Sandhu subsequently described the reported change as “unauthorised and illegal”.
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5.Appeals against restoration of removed voters
During the SIR exercise in West Bengal, the Election Commission of India filed appeals against the restoration of voters whose names had been removed, according to the report. Sandhu questioned who had authorised the appeals and said neither he nor Joshi nor the state’s Chief Electoral Officer had been informed about the basis or process for filing them.
6.Over 90 eligible voters left out of final roll in Goa
Due to a problem with the SIR software, 97 voters found eligible by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in Goa were left out of the final electoral roll.
According to The Indian Express report, the EROs examined documents submitted by the voters and found them eligible for inclusion. However, the software did not provide an option to reverse their earlier deletion. The Goa Chief Electoral Officer’s office wrote repeatedly to officials seeking a rollback option, but it was not enabled before the final roll was published.
Calls for CEC’s removal
The revelations about the objections raised by the two Election Commissioners have triggered a political debate over the functioning of the Election Commission and the role of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have linked the findings to their existing allegations of “vote chori” and have demanded Kumar’s removal. Congress leaders have also accused the Narendra Modi government of protecting the CEC and alleged that the electoral system is being undermined.
Though the Indian Express investigation exposed major lapses in the poll body, the Government of India is yet make an official response to it.
(This copy is compiled by Ranju Raj)
