Why India's Election Commission is in the eye of a storm - again

Why India’s Election Commission is once again under fire

India’s opposition parties have called on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down.

India’s Election Commission (ECI) is confronting another credibility crisis after a fresh set of allegations of irregularities involving its chief.

The three-member body, one of the most trusted public institutions in the world’s largest democracy, is led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and includes Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi as commissioners.

The latest controversy erupted after a report in the Indian Express newspaper, external said that over the past few months, CEC Kumar had repeatedly been challenged by his two colleagues over the integrity of the voter database, changes to the process for enrolling new voters, and the security of the electoral rolls themselves.

According to the report, Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi opposed several decisions made without their knowledge. It added that there were at least 14 occasions in the past 10 months when Sandhu and Joshi were left uninformed.

In one case, the report says, the two commissioners even sent a letter of complaint to the chief secretary, the top bureaucrat in the Indian government.

The disclosures have sparked an uproar, with opposition leaders demanding Kumar’s resignation. Sandhu and Joshi have not commented publicly on the report, but the ECI said in a statement that “differing views” were part of the “decision-making process”.

The report comes as the commission is conducting a contentious nationwide overhaul of the electoral database.

The Election Commission says the purpose of this Special Intensive Revision, better known by its acronym SIR, is to make sure no ineligible name remains on the rolls.

It says the previous revision was carried out nearly 25 years ago and that the voters’ list needs updating to reflect people who have died, left the country, or are registered in more than one place after moving to a new address.

But the exercise has been controversial from the outset, with opposition parties accusing CEC Kumar of manipulating the voters’ list to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during elections. Both the BJP and the Election Commission have denied the allegations.

The latest revelations, however, are being viewed as far more serious because they involve concerns raised from within the Election Commission about how its chief is operating.

The Indian Express report says CEC Kumar has been repeatedly questioned by his two colleagues in recent months over the integrity of the voter database.

From the beginning, doubts have persisted about the robustness of the revision, which has led to 130 million names from across India being removed from the voters’ list.

Millions of voters have also complained to authorities that their names are missing, saying the new SIR process for registering as voters is too cumbersome and requires documents many do not have.

Former CEC SY Quraishi, who says he has “been a critic of the SIR from the beginning”, told news agency PTI that he had always wondered why Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi had been “keeping quiet”.

“[Now] I realised that very silently and quietly they were protesting, they were writing notes. That is a good thing, they have gone up in my esteem,” he said.

The revelations have also given fresh ammunition to opposition parties and critics who have repeatedly argued that SIR is being used to exclude their voters for the BJP’s benefit and that elections in India are no longer free and fair.

On Wednesday, angry opposition politicians again questioned the integrity of India’s election process and demanded that CEC Kumar resign, saying he had no right to remain in office, with some even calling for his arrest.

The attack was led by MP and senior Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, who has repeatedly accused the Commission of “stealing votes from the opposition”. On Wednesday, he also accused the Commission and its officers of “treason”.

“Vote chori [theft] is a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on our constitution. The BJP, RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] and EC who organised it have committed an act of treason. Justice will be served,” he posted on X, external. He also shared a 15-second video telling the commission and its officers that “your time will come. You cannot get away”.

Mamata Banerjee, leader of the regional Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, called for Kumar’s arrest and demanded fresh elections using the pre-SIR voters’ list in West Bengal, which she lost to the BJP in the recent elections. At least 2.7 million voters were removed in the state during SIR — Banerjee and her supporters say that cost them dozens of seats and the election victory.

Within hours of the Indian Express report and the opposition’s statements, the Election Commission issued a statement, external defending its approach.

“Differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution. They are a part of the decision-making process before a final decision is taken.

“Not only the three Commissioners, but every officer of the Commission is fully authorised to give his suggestions to the Commission for improving the electoral system,” the statement said.

The note said that focusing on “certain specific internal notes and observations spread over the period of 10 months while overlooking the much larger body of approvals, decisions, instructions and initiatives” presents only part of the picture.

It also said that in recent months the commission has “introduced around 40 new initiatives and undertaken many electoral reforms including the conduct of electoral roll revision (including SIR) across the country. All these decisions are an outcome of the unanimous decisions of the full commission in the past one year”.

The BJP has also backed CEC Kumar, describing the opposition’s criticism as a “smear campaign” and saying dissent was “a sign of a vibrant democracy”.

Party spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference that “ever since the Modi government came to power in 2014, opposition parties have been collapsing one after the other”. And because they cannot win elections, they are trying to “undermine the institutions of the country”, he said.

But the dispute over the election database is likely to deepen. Banerjee has already said opposition parties will continue protests until Kumar remains CEC.

And India’s influential Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which recently forced the education minister to resign, has also said it will protest against the “hijacking of India’s democracy”.

Analysts say the Election Commission’s defence is unlikely to satisfy many, with some noting that its statement does not address all the issues raised in the newspaper report and that “CEC Kumar needs to clear the air, external if we are to view the Commission as an impartial body”.