IndiaPosted at: Oct 1 2026 9:57AM


Rahul Gandhi seeks answers on online form 6 change, questions ECI-TCS chain of responsibility

New Delhi, Oct 1 (UNI) Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday sought answers from the Election Commission of India over the controversial changes made to the online Form 6 used for enrolment of new voters, asking who ordered Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to implement the modification and who within the company approved it.
In a post on social media platform X, Gandhi referred to objections recorded by Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu over the addition of a Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-related declaration to the statutory Form 6.
“The online Form 6 was changed illegally - as the EC's own Commissioners have recorded,” Gandhi said, posing three questions: “Who at the ECI ordered Tata Consultancy Services to make that change? Who at TCS signed off on it? And were they pressured into doing it?”
His intervention comes amid a wider controversy over the functioning of the poll panel and its ECINET digital platform, following reports that Joshi and Sandhu had raised objections on several occasions to decisions concerning electoral rolls and the SIR exercise.
An investigation by The Indian Express reported that Joshi had objected in May to proposed changes to Form 6, maintaining that the statutory form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, could not be altered without an amendment to the rules. Sandhu subsequently supported the objection and recorded that the changes introduced in the online Form 6 were “unauthorised/illegal” and should be removed.

The additional declaration required applicants to state whether their own name, or the name of a parent or grandparent, appeared in an electoral roll prepared during an earlier intensive revision.
Although the declaration was not marked mandatory, applicants reportedly could not complete the online application without responding to it.
The ECI, however, has maintained that Form 6 itself was not amended and that the additional declaration was a requirement linked specifically to the SIR exercise.
The Commission has also said that the introduction of the declaration was approved unanimously and that the Supreme Court had upheld its authority to prescribe such a declaration in the context of SIR.
The controversy intensified after the full Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi, met on September 26 and took a series of decisions concerning Form 6, electoral-roll data and the functioning of the Commission's technology systems.
The ECI subsequently withdrew the SIR-linked declaration from Form 6 in states and union Territories where the revision exercise had been completed, while retaining it in areas where SIR was still under way.
The developments have also brought into focus the decision-making process within the three-member poll panel. Reports have said Sandhu and Joshi recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over a 10-month period to various decisions and orders.
The ECI has maintained that differences of view within an institution are normal and that decisions were ultimately taken with the approval of the full Commission.
Gandhi's latest intervention, however, puts the spotlight specifically on the implementation of the online Form 6 modification and seeks to establish the chain of responsibility between the ECI and its technology service provider.
His questions centre on who authorised the technical change, who approved its implementation at TCS and whether anyone involved in carrying it out was subjected to pressure.
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Tags: #Rahul Gandhi seeks answers on online form 6 change# questions ECI-TCS chain of responsibility
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