Ahmedabad: Complaints of name deletion received during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) would be “110 per cent resolved” before the next Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Outlining a step-by-step appeal process, Kumar said documents would be central to establishing eligibility and citizenship. He also defended the transparency of India’s election system and said criticism of the Election Commission of India (ECI) was part of democracy.“We should have stronger and stronger shoulders to take these bullets every single day,” asserted the CEC, who is on a two-day visit to Gujarat.His confident response came during a special interaction with citizens on ‘Conducting Elections in India – The Largest Democracy in the World’ organised at Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA).
Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar visits Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad on Thursday
Kumar said people whose names were excluded from the rolls could approach election authorities through a multi-level appeal process. “You can complain to the SDM. If it is rejected, you can appeal to the district collector, and a second appeal can be filed to the state chief electoral officer. Then you can go to court,” he said.Asked whether the thousands of complaints received during the SIR exercise could be resolved before the next LS polls, Kumar replied, “110 per cent”.Kumar said the SIR had been conducted earlier in 2002. He explained that the exercise aimed to verify voter eligibility and map electors against earlier electoral rolls. “Our focus is to clean the rolls of those who are absent, shifted, dead, duplicate and foreigners,” he said.Kumar said the EC, as a constitutional authority, relied on documents during the verification process. “You have to provide your documents or your parents’ documents to prove you are Indian,” he said.He said two categories of people were excluded: those without the required documents and foreigners.Kumar said that after the SIR in around 12 states, election authorities had received no appeals against name deletions. He added that he was monitoring the process regularly.He said eligibility remained the basic condition for inclusion in the electoral rolls. “The Constitution or the EC cannot help if you are not eligible,” he said.Responding to a question on relentless criticism of the Election Commission of India and whether a line should be drawn if such criticism affects public faith in the constitutional body, Kumar said, “I do not think we can draw a line. Any number of lines you can draw, and every one of them will be breached. It is okay to take the criticism.”
Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar visits Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad on Thursday
Kumar said India’s election system was a vast and transparent mechanism conducted in accordance with the Constitution, election laws and the directives of the EC. Organising LS elections in a country with around 900 million, or 90 crore, voters was the world’s largest electoral exercise, he said. “It has never ever been done on this planet by any democracy,” he said.“Approximately 18 million, or 1.8 crore, personnel are engaged in election duties during general elections. The successful conduct of elections involving such a vast workforce and electorate stands as a testament to the unique capability of India’s election system,” Kumar said.He said the ECI’s basic electoral-roll principle had two parts: “all eligible persons should become voters” and “no ineligible person should become a voter”.Kumar added that the participation of representatives of political parties and candidates from the preparation of electoral rolls to voting and counting was a distinctive feature of India’s electoral process.He said national and state political parties concurrently audit electoral rolls at every booth. “This level of transparency does not exist in any other democracy of the world,” he said, adding that the system had evolved over the past 70 years.On electronic voting machines, Kumar said EVMs were like calculators and were not connected to the internet, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. He said they could not be hacked.He said EVMs had withstood 41 Supreme Court cases, hackathons and mock polls over the three decades from 1996 to 2026. “EVM still has won. Victorious every time,” he said.(With PTI inputs)
