Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Nowhere was the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls more contentious than in West Bengal. Now, an Indian Express investigation has found that questions over the handling of the SIR process came from within the poll panel itself. According to the report, one of the Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, objected to the filing of appeals against voters whose names judicial officers had decided to retain.
advertisement
This was among the various aspects of the SIR exercise that were objected to by the two Election Commissioners over the past 10 months. The poll body, however, said the “differing views” were a normal part of deliberations.
The report has sparked a political furore in Bengal, where the BJP secured a historic win in the April elections, ending the 15-year reign of the Trinamool Congress. While Mamata Banerjee sought repolls in Bengal, Abhishek Banerjee has sought the immediate sacking of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
WHAT HAS THE REPORT SAID ON BENGAL SIR?
To understand what the Indian Express investigation found, we need to look at the numbers first.
Around 90 lakh voters, around 11.60%, were erased after the Bengal SIR. A massive 60 lakh voters were placed under adjudication because of “logical discrepancies”. After adjudication by judicial officers, roughly 32.68 lakh were found eligible, while 27.16 lakh names were ordered to be deleted.
Last week, the Election Commission told the Supreme Court that 38 lakh appeals were pending before the tribunals. These include 22.21 lakh appeals filed by deleted voters seeking restoration of their names.
The interesting bit is about the other 16.10 lakh appeals. These appeals were filed against voters whose names were retained by the judicial officers for inclusion in the rolls. These appeals sought their deletion.
Now, the Election Commission did not clarify who had filed these 16.10 lakh appeals. This was questioned by Election Commissioner Sandhu, as per the Express report.
In August, Sandhu wrote to ECI officials seeking to know who had been authorised to file these appeals on behalf of the poll body. In a note, seen by Express, he recorded that neither of the Election Commissioners (the other being Vivek Joshi), nor the Bengal CEO, was informed of the filing of the appeals.
“Who was authorised to file these appeals on behalf of ECI, and by whom?” Sandhu sought to know. “Who actually filed these appeals on behalf of ECI?” he further said.
Importantly, the Express report said these objections were also copied to CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
WHY THIS MATTERS?
The issue is significant because the Election Commission’s ‘Transaction of Business Rules’ emphasise unanimity in decision-making. In simple terms, important decisions of the three-member poll panel are expected to be taken collectively.
Sandhu’s note indicates that the Election Commissioners were kept in the dark on the filing of appeals.
WHAT IS THE ROW OVER ECI’S VOTER SOFTWARE?
Another major issue raised in the Express report pertains to access to the poll body’s software, ERONET, by state-level election officials. This is part of the ECI’s umbrella software ECINet, which was launched in January to bring all portals under one roof.
Basically, the software allows state Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to add or delete names and update voter records. According to the Express report, in May, the two Election Commissioners flagged complaints by EROs that they were being restricted from accessing the portal.
The portal is overseen by the Election Commission’s Director General of IT, Seema Khanna. This issue was raised by Sandhu in August as well, who said in a note that Khanna “doesn’t have any legal authority to restrict complete access” to the EROs.
Reacting to this, Mamata camp MP Mahua Moitra claimed she had flagged this issue to the Bengal chief electoral officer four times.
“During Bengal SIR process, we met Chief Electoral Officer at least 4 times to highlight how Seema Khanna’s centralised software restricted ground-level ERONet access and changed data at will. Now, we find 2 Election Commissioners said exactly what we did!” Moitra tweeted.
“Aided by Gyanesh Kumar, Khanna used the software to centrally add, delete and manipulate voter names and lists bypassing on-ground officials who had ERONet logins in Bengal,” she further said.
While the ECI did not directly address the specific controversy, it said in a statement that platforms such as ECINet operate under “strict data security protocols” to prevent “unauthorised tampering and manipulation”.
DID THE SIR IMPACT BENGAL ELECTIONS?
There is no evidence that the SIR exercise affected the Bengal assembly election result. However, the Mamata Banerjee camp has repeatedly alleged that the faulty SIR exercise disenfranchised several voters loyal to the party.
Data shows that in 49 of the 294 constituencies, the number of SIR-related deletions was higher than the winning margin. However, these seats were evenly split between the BJP and the undivided TMC. While the BJP won 26, the TMC won 21.
Reacting fiercely to the Express report, Mamata Banerjee demanded the arrest of CEC Gyanesh Kumar. “They cannot depute their own EROs in the name of the BJP IT Team… This Election Commissioner must be arrested,” Mamata said. She also sought a re-election in Bengal.
Her nephew and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee sought a court-monitored investigation.
“Disenfranchising lakhs of voters to allegedly benefit one political party strikes at the very foundation of our democracy. Those responsible must be held accountable,” Abhishek tweeted.
“The Supreme Court cannot look away. The buck stops there. Will the CJI-led Bench act?” he said.
Countering the Mamata camp, BJP MP Sambit Patra dismissed the charge that SIR voter deletions helped the BJP win the Bengal election.
“The highest number of voters were deleted in 20 seats. Of which, the TMC won 13, and the BJP won six. If we won through ‘vote chori’, then how did we lose more than half of the seats?” Patra said.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
