Election Commission states, no changes made to the form

New Delhi : Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the Election Commission’s Form 6, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has raised questions regarding TCS (Tata Consultancy Services). He has asked who authorized the company to implement this change. Notably, this post comes at a time when the opposition is uniting against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, even as the Commission maintains that no changes were made to the form.

Rahul Gandhi posted, “The online Form 6 was illegally altered, as recorded by the Election Commission’s own commissioners.” He questioned, “Who within the Commission ordered TCS to make this change ? Who at TCS signed off on it ? And were they pressured to do so ?”

The issue of this alteration was highlighted in a recent report by The Indian Express. The report claimed that both Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections regarding the matter. It was alleged that the two commissioners had questioned various decisions made by the Commission on multiple occasions, only to be ignored.

The Commission has stated that no changes were made to Form 6 itself; rather, an additional declaration was attached to it during the SIR (Special Summary Revision) process. The Commission maintains that this declaration was an additional requirement under orders related to the SIR, and no amendments were made to the original statutory Form 6. Following a meeting on September 26, the Commission stated that the additional declaration related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was to be used only during the SIR period; for the subsequent period, the forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used. It noted that this additional declaration was subsequently removed from the online Form-6 in states where the SIR process had concluded.

A meeting of the opposition INDIA alliance took place in the capital, Delhi, on Wednesday. During the meeting, discussions were held regarding the future strategy concerning Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Reports indicate that the opposition is now preparing to stage a march against the Election Commission on October 6. Preparations for a nationwide agitation are also underway.

Recalling his electoral experience from the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge claimed he was “cheated” in his own election, despite having won several elections previously. Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, alleged that the names of approximately 1.9 lakh voters in his constituency were deleted during the 2019 elections, in which he lost the Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat.

Report – Abhijit Tushar Bhatt (Political Editor)