Congress claims poll body misled public on voter database tool legality

The Congress party has accused the Election Commission of making false claims regarding the lawfulness of its ECINet portal and breaking electoral rules. Party communication chief Jairam Ramesh stated on Friday that the poll panel must answer for these breaches of the law and the country's Constitution. Mr. Ramesh pointed to a September 26 press release where the commission stated it formed a panel to check if ECINet follows the required acts and rules. He called this attempt at damage control an action that only makes things worse. He also questioned the honesty of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the platform's initial compliance claims.

Launch and Alleged Rules Breach

ECINet was rolled out on January 22 to improve transparency and public confidence, with the poll body claiming at the time that the system followed all relevant legal statutes and rules. Mr. Ramesh dismissed those original claims as completely false. He stated that the commission broke the 1950 Representation of the People Act and the 1960 Electors Rules by limiting how local registration officers can access the voter-roll database and by overriding them in states like Goa and West Bengal.

Opposition Protests and Demands

Mr. Ramesh noted that local laws grant statutory power over voter lists directly to Electoral Registration Officers, pointing to a September 24 letter from the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer asking to fix this exact issue. In response to these developments, the INDIA opposition bloc has planned nationwide street demonstrations and joint save-democracy rallies. Opposition lawmakers will also march toward the election office on October 6 to push for the Chief Election Commissioner to step down and to demand a close review of the Special Intensive Revision process.

Context

Electoral Registration Officers are local officials designated under Indian law with the specific legal duty to prepare and maintain accurate voter rolls for their respective constituencies. Debates over administrative control and technical systems frequently arise when central election authorities introduce new digital tools that interact with existing statutory duties held by field-level officers.