IndiaPosted at: Sep 26 2026 8:27PM


Jairam Ramesh steps up attack on ECI, demands SIR suspension and CEC’s exit

New Delhi, Sep 26 (UNI) Congress general secretary (communications) and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Saturday stepped up his attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the poll panel had failed to adequately address recent revelations concerning voter deletions and the functioning of its electoral software.
He demanded that the SIR exercise be suspended immediately and reiterated his call for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign or face prosecution.
Ramesh’s statement came after the ECI held a meeting of the full Commission on Saturday and announced measures to simplify the SIR process, including home visits by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for voters who have received notices over unmapped records or logical discrepancies.
The Commission also extended the deadlines for filing claims and objections in Delhi and Maharashtra and ordered a review of the ECINET portal by experts from IITs and IIITs.
The ECI said its decisions relating to the SIR process and Form 6 declaration had been approved unanimously by the full Commission. Ramesh said the ECI’s September 26 press note had not directly rebutted the findings of reports published by The Indian Express and subsequently by other newspapers, which had triggered protests and demands for Kumar’s removal.
“First, the Press note does not directly deny the story or its findings,” Ramesh said, alleging that the Commission had instead made a “defensive attempt to downplay” the revelations without declaring the allegations baseless.
He cited the controversy over 97 voters in Goa who, according to media reports, were initially flagged for discrepancies during the SIR process but were subsequently found eligible for inclusion by electoral officials.
The voters were nevertheless left out of the final electoral roll, with the issue linked to the functioning of the ECINET system. The Goa Chief Electoral Officer has since said that steps were being taken to enrol eligible voters who had been left out.
“Second, in the case of Goa, after having been caught out the ECI has sheepishly stated that Form 6 has already been filled out for inclusion by 81 of the 97 deleted voters,” Ramesh said. “To put this another way, you disenfranchise voters through a broken and corrupt system, and when caught say that they are being added back.”
The controversy has centred on reports that the 97 voters had been declared eligible by Electoral Registration Officers after scrutiny and hearings, but their inclusion could not subsequently be recorded in the ECINET system because there was no mechanism to roll back the earlier deletion.
The ECI has maintained that the software does not provide a rollback facility once a deletion has been processed through Form 7.
Ramesh also rejected the ECI’s reliance on the Supreme Court’s May 27, 2026 order in defending the SIR exercise. He argued that the order predated the recent revelations and, in his view, could not settle questions relating to alleged wrongful deletion of voters, administrative failures or the expenditure and disruption caused by the revision process.
“The Order which was pronounced well before the recent revelations will not save the CEC for the malicious deletion of targeted voters, for the incompetence that has resulted in citizens being wiped off the roles, for the crores lost in both expenses and man-hours due to the confusion and harassment caused to entire families,” he said.
The Congress leader also questioned the ECI’s decision to extend the claims and objections period in Delhi and Maharashtra, asking why similar relief had not been announced for voters affected by the SIR process elsewhere.
“But what happens to the voters of Karnataka and Telangana? What happens to the voters disenfranchised in Bihar and West Bengal?” he asked. “Do the voters of these and other states who were deleted due to one man’s corruption not deserve answers?”
The ECI has extended the deadline for filing claims and objections in Delhi to October 30 and in Maharashtra to November 12, while revising related timelines.
The Commission said the measures were intended to make the process easier for voters and provide additional opportunities to those required to respond to notices.
Ramesh also questioned the decision to involve experts from IITs and IIITs in reviewing the ECINET portal. He argued that the central issue was not merely the technical functioning of the software but what he described as the centralisation of the electoral-roll process and the restrictions allegedly faced by officials at the grassroots level in adding or restoring voters.
“Apart from being a meaningless safeguard (since the concern is not about the technical soundness but rather the centralization which prevents voter addition at ground level) this confirms the concerns attributed to the two other Election Commissioners per the reportage,” he said.
The ECI has maintained that its decisions relating to SIR were taken unanimously. ECINET itself was launched by the Commission in January 2026 as a unified digital platform for election-related information and services, and the ECI had said at the time that the platform was developed in accordance with the law.
Ramesh further alleged that the ECI had failed to address concerns over the registration of first-time voters, particularly those belonging to Generation Z. He claimed that changes introduced from mid-July had placed an additional burden on young applicants by requiring them to provide details concerning their parents or grandparents.
“The ECI has no answer for its targeted disenfranchisement, beginning mid-July 2026 through wholly illegal changes made to Form 6 (unseen and unapproved by Parliament) which placed an unfair burden on them to find and disclose their parents and/or grandparents’ details,” he alleged.
The issue has been part of the Congress’s broader criticism of the SIR process. Ramesh has alleged that new requirements in the voter-registration process created hurdles for first-time voters, while the ECI has disputed the description that the statutory Form 6 itself was altered, maintaining that an additional declaration was integrated into the online process.
Ramesh alleged “the unilateral nature of decision making by the CEC”, “his open hatred and bias against the Opposition resulting in a clear bias”, “his willing participation and abetment in Vote Chori by the ruling regime”, “his specific attack to prevent the enrollment of Gen Z voters” and what he described as “his corruption exposed ironically by his negligence in purging and pruning voter lists”.
These are allegations made by Ramesh and the Congress.
The ECI has rejected claims of an internal rift and said decisions relating to the SIR exercise were taken with the unanimous approval of the full Commission.
“The CEC thinks he can hide behind ‘bureaucratise’ and protocol. He stands exposed and is now petrified as an entire country seeks to hold him accountable,” Ramesh said.
Calling the SIR exercise a “method of massive disenfranchisement” of crores of Indians, Ramesh demanded its immediate suspension. “In the meantime, nothing short of the CEC’s resignation or prosecution will suffice,” Ramesh added.
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Tags: #Jairam Ramesh steps up attack on ECI# demands SIR suspension and CEC’s exit
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