NEW DELHI: Pressure continued to mount on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Friday, with NDA ally and Union minister Chirag Paswan asking the Election Commission (EC) to come out with an explanation over the controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Meanwhile, the poll panel postponed two youth outreach programmes in Uttar Pradesh that Kumar was scheduled to address.
Paswan, president of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), said in Bihar that the EC needed to dispel misgivings among people as questions over the electoral process could undermine public confidence in the system.
“If the people start losing trust in the electoral system, that will not augur well for democracy and, therefore, I think the Election Commission must come out with its clarification more forcefully. It need not respond to what Rahul Gandhi and his associates are saying. But it must dispel misgivings in the minds of the people,” Paswan said.
Making it clear that he did not intend to defend the EC merely because he was part of the government, Paswan said the poll panel was a constitutional body and should explain its position independently.
The intervention from an NDA ally came amid a controversy over reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to several decisions concerning electoral-roll management and the SIR.
Amid the row, the EC postponed two youth-focused programmes in Uttar Pradesh that Kumar was scheduled to address. The CEC was to attend a regional conference on Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs) in Meerut on Friday and interact with young voters at another programme in Varanasi on September 28.
The EC, however, maintained that the postponement had nothing to do with the controversy. An EC official said the decision was taken on September 21 and cited factors such as availability of venues, schedules of senior authorities and natural conditions. Similar ELC conferences had previously been postponed or rescheduled in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Uttarakhand, the official said.
The programmes are part of the EC’s revamped ELC 2.0 initiative aimed at familiarising school and college students, particularly first-time voters, with electoral registration and the election process.
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the enrolment of young voters, contrasting his government with that of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Calling it a “Tale of Two PMs”, Ramesh said Parliament had amended Article 326 of the Constitution in 1988 during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. He alleged that the Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls had not resumed after the 2024 cycle, affecting the enrolment of Gen-Z voters.
The EC, however, sought to counter concerns over the enrolment of young voters, with officials saying that about 2.37 crore electors in the 18-28 age group had been added to electoral rolls since the SIR exercise began in Bihar in June last year.
The poll panel has also faced questions over an additional declaration sought from new voters applying for enrolment. Under the SIR instructions, applicants using Form 6 are required to provide details relating to their parents or grandparents and their presence in electoral rolls during the previous SIR.
The EC has maintained that Form 6 itself has not been amended and that the SIR-related requirement was introduced through an additional declaration.
However, according to a recent report, Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi had objected to the proposed change, arguing that statutory forms could not be altered without amendments to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Sandhu subsequently described the changes made on the portal as “unauthorised” and “illegal” and sought their removal.
The Election Commission has rejected suggestions of an institutional breakdown and maintained that its decisions, including those relating to the SIR, were taken unanimously and in accordance with established procedures.
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