“Who at ECI ordered to make that change?”: Rahul Gandhi questions Form 6 modification amid SIR row
New Delhi : Amid the mouting chaos over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) over changes made to the online Form 6 for voter registration.
In a post on X Gandhi asked who within the poll panel ordered to make the alteration to the Form 6 and who approved it.
“The online Form 6 was changed illegally – as the EC’s own Commissioners have recorded. 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?” Gandhi asked.
His remarks came after an investigative report by The Indian Express revealed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to changes made to the online Form 6, the application used for inclusion of names in electoral rolls.
According to the report, an additional declaration relating to the previous SIR electoral roll was added to the online Form 6 on the ECINET portal. The declaration sought information on whether the applicant’s name, or that of their parent or grandparent, appeared in the electoral roll prepared during the previous SIR.
A major controversy has emerged amid the broader political confrontation between the Opposition and the EC over SIR and the functioning of the poll body.
Earlier on Wednesday, INDIA bloc leaders held a coordination meeting in New Delhi and announced a series of protests against the EC. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Opposition parties would organise a nationwide “Save Democracy March” at the district level from October 2 to October 8.
Opposition MPs are also scheduled to march to the Election Commission on October 6, while INDIA bloc leaders are expected to meet President Droupadi Murmu in the second week of October to raise their concerns.
Gandhi, addressing the meeting, said INDIA bloc leaders were committed to ensuring accountability over what they allege are threats to democratic institutions.
“It is the personal commitment of all INDIA leaders that we are going to ensure that the people who have destroyed Indian democracy are punished. It doesn’t matter how senior they are, who they are; Indian democracy is bigger than every single person in this country,” he said.
However, the Election Commission has maintained that electoral rolls are prepared through established statutory processes and has taken steps to review the functioning of ECINET.
