The Election Commission is under a cloud. What was once a well-respected institution, central to the vaunted democratic process, is now a shadow of its former self. Allegations are flying thick and fast, against the Commission’s handling of elections. The intervention of the Supreme Court on Thursday, asking ECI to upload the list of 65 lakh Bihar voters whose names had appeared in the 2025 lists but are not included in the EC’s present draft list is welcome. These lists, the court said, must be displayed on the district-level web sites alongside wide publicity to this exercise through the media. EC must also state the reason for each deletion.
The removal of so many names from the Bihar electoral rolls was done by the Commission as part of the “special” revision of the lists in the run-up to state assembly polls. While the rolls revision is a usual exercise, the Congress and other opposition parties were incensed by the wholesale manner in which the EC did it this time. The Commission has stated that 22 lakh of these persons had died. All these need to be verified. It is appreciable also that the apex court has insisted that the lists must be displayed at the village-panchayat and local body offices in the respective places/regions. Clearly, the credibility of the EC has been called into question. Under the circumstances, it is advisable on the part of the BJP and the state’s ruling JDU to wholeheartedly support a review of the controversial EC exercise. Truth must prevail. In fact, the dissatisfaction about EC’s functioning snowballed through the sprouting of other serious issues like the large-scale inclusion of “fake” names in the electoral lists as also massive duplication of names elsewhere in the past. Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi was justified in highlighting this issue and raising the suspicion that the 2024 electoral victory of the BJP – though short of a majority for the NDA in parliament – might have something to do with manipulation of voters’ lists. Significantly, he came up with proof vis-à-vis Karnataka, though some other allegations are yet to be proven. The BJP retaliated that such large-scale inclusion of fake voters had happened even in Rahul Gandhi’s Rae Bareli and sister Priyanka’s Wayanad constituencies. All these accusations further dented the image of the EC.
Admittedly, fraudulent additions to voters list are made across constituencies before every poll, but the issue gains lethality when it emerges that a coordinated attempt has been made to subvert the people’s will. Even the handling of the electronic voting machines had raised tempers especially in the 2024 general elections, followed by the assembly polls in Haryana, Maharashtra etc, which were mostly won by the BJP. We are a long way away from the days of TN Seshan, a senior bureaucrat who headed the Commission and supervised polls with dedication and a high sense of integrity.
