Election Commissioners Raise Objections Over Electoral Rolls

The Election Commission of India has come under scrutiny following a report by The Indian Express that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded at least 14 formal objections over 10 months to decisions related to the electoral rolls and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The reported concerns included changes to Form 6, the addition and deletion of voter names, appeals against deletion decisions and access to the electoral-roll database.

The report triggered political reactions, including strong criticism of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke. In a post, Dipke alleged that more than 12 crore names had been removed from electoral rolls and accused Kumar of “scripting” elections. These are Dipke’s allegations and have not been independently established. Meanwhile, ECI sources rejected the suggestion of an internal rift, stating that all decisions, including those related to the SIR, had the approval of all three Election Commissioners.