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Congress has called the Election Commission’s new measures an admission that the Special Intensive Revision has been a ‘disaster’, saying they cannot undo what it describes as mass disenfranchisement.
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Jairam Ramesh has raised fresh questions over the use of ECINet, alleged overriding of ERO decisions and the Election Commission’s disclosures on AI-assisted electoral roll preparation.
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The Congress has rejected the EC’s explanation that all SIR decisions were unanimously approved, citing reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections to several decisions.
Stepping up its attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Congress on Sunday, 27 September said the poll panel’s proposed measures relating to the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls amounted to an admission that the exercise had been a ‘disaster’. It said the ‘piecemeal’ measures for voters whose names had been deleted or are at risk of deletion would do little to address what it described as ‘mass disenfranchisement’.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP and general-secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the press note issued by the ECI on Saturday was a ‘desperate attempt at damage control that hides all and reveals nothing’.
In a statement posted on X, Ramesh said the EC’s proposed measures were themselves an admission that the SIR had gone wrong. ‘The piecemeal measures for deleted or at risk voters will do little to mitigate this mass disenfranchisement. For 5.43 crore voters who are at risk of deletion, the EC has promised that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will now visit their houses. This was supposed to happen during the house-to-house enumeration phase,’ Ramesh said.
‘We know that in practice these visits were sparse and sporadic. What is the value of promising a second round of visits which likely will not happen? The logic of repeating a process done poorly once must be examined,’ he said.
The ECI, following its full-Commission meeting on 26 September, said BLOs would visit the homes of voters flagged for ‘logical’ or ‘unmapped’ discrepancies, collect documents and upload them to ECINet for consideration by electoral registration officers (EROs). It also said such voters would not ordinarily have to appear for hearings in person.
Ramesh questioned the purpose of the exercise, describing SIR as a ‘colossal waste’ of public resources and a nuisance for citizens. ‘For nearly 14 crore voters deleted so far in all three phases of the SIR, the Commission’s answer is that they must now apply afresh to their Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for inclusion. First disenfranchise en masse, and then ask voters to get themselves re-added,’ he said.
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