New Delhi: The Opposition on Thursday stepped up its criticism of the Election Commission following a report that 97 voters in Goa, despite being cleared as eligible by local election officials, were not included in the final electoral roll prepared after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The Congress launched a direct attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had taken control of the entire electoral system at the Prime Minister’s direction and was engaging in “anti-national acts”. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the development demonstrated that the “election process has been thoroughly compromised and vitiated” and repeated the party’s demand for Kumar to resign.
97 Voters Omitted From Roll
According to a report published by The Indian Express, local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in Goa had determined that 97 voters qualified to be added to the 2026 final electoral roll. Their names, however, were reportedly not restored because the Election Commission’s centralised ECINet platform did not permit the EROs to undo earlier deletion orders.
The software is operated by the Commission’s IT division in Delhi, the report said, and the local officers were unable to make the necessary changes through the system.
Goa Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel allegedly sent eight emails over a period of seven days requesting that a rollback option be made available. Although the Commission’s Deputy Election Commissioner reportedly instructed the IT division to activate the facility, the correction mechanism was not provided before the final roll was released, as reported by India Today.
Goel declined to respond to India Today TV’s questions about the voters whose names were deleted. “I have no information about the matter. I will check my report and get back,” he said.
The latest controversy surfaced as the poll panel faces renewed scrutiny over another report concerning alleged disagreements among its three members. The report claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had repeatedly objected to decisions taken under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, including those concerning the SIR.
Congress Targets Modi
The Congress directly blamed the Prime Minister for the reported exclusion of voters and accused Kumar of undermining democratic rights.
“Modi’s darling Gyanesh Kumar is strangling democracy,” the party said in a post on X.
“The very Gyanesh Kumar who makes grand proclamations about the right to vote is the one snatching away voters’ rights. At Narendra Modi’s behest, Gyanesh Kumar has hijacked the entire system and is carrying out anti-national acts like ‘vote theft’,” the Congress alleged.
Ramesh said the Representation of the People Act gives EROs statutory responsibility over electoral rolls. He claimed that, in Goa, their access to ECINet had been curtailed as part of an “illegal and centralising move”.
The Opposition has been objecting to the poll panel’s centralised management of the software used for electoral-roll revisions. Critics said the system could override local officials and exclude voters cleared under the Supreme Court-mandated process.
“Each new piece of evidence further confirms what the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has been saying for almost two years, ever since the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly election results were out. The election process has been thoroughly compromised and vitiated. This is Gyanesh Kumar implementing the Method of Disenfranchising Indians (MODI),” Ramesh said.
Tharoor Demands Action
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor described the alleged exclusion of the voters as an “extremely serious” matter and said it amounted to a denial of their constitutional rights.
“Political chicanery is bad enough, but inhumane conduct is unconscionable. The Election Commission owes an apology to the affected citizens and indeed to the nation. Resignation is a minimal demand; rescinding this disastrous software and undoing the harm it has caused is now indispensable,” Tharoor wrote on X.
The Goa episode has intensified the larger political dispute over the poll panel’s functioning. The Opposition has also raised questions about alleged differences within the Commission over voter deletions, electoral-roll changes and the growing role of centralised digital systems.
EC Denies Differences
An Indian Express report claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected 14 times in 10 months to decisions on voter forms, deletions and centralised election software.
They also reportedly said key decisions were taken without their knowledge and warned that limiting EROs’ access could weaken their legal authority.
The EC rejected the report, saying differences among commissioners were normal and all SIR-related decisions were unanimous. The Opposition, however, continued to demand greater accountability.