Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the functioning of the Election Commission after a report said two Election Commissioners had repeatedly objected to decisions linked to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. CM Abdullah said the reported differences raised serious questions and called for corrective action to protect public trust in elections and democracy.
CM Omar Abdullah says EC developments ‘open a lot of questions’
CM Abdullah was responding to an Indian Express investigation that said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge.
The reported objections concerned key parts of electoral roll management, including the addition and deletion of voters, changes to Form 6 and control over the voter database.
CM Abdullah said the report added to concerns that his party had raised earlier about the Election Commission’s functioning, including during the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have had persistent complaints about the way in which the Election Commission has functioned. Before SIR became an issue for the rest of the country, for us delimitation was an issue. We believed that the process was opaque; the process was flawed. And the entire process was designed to benefit one political party and its friends,” he said.
‘There is something fishy’: CM Omar Abdullah on reported EC differences
CM Abdullah said the reported differences within the poll panel strengthened his concerns about how decisions were being taken.
He said the Election Commission’s response acknowledging that individual members could have different opinions raised further questions in his view.
CM Abdullah said corrective action was needed because public confidence in elections was central to the democratic process.
“The foundation of democracy is elections. And if people’s faith in elections is lost, then why would people even participate in elections? So I feel that the members of the Election Commission, the Election Commission and the Government of India need to think about this,” he said.
‘If this is not an attack on the Constitution, then what is it?’
CM Abdullah also backed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism over the removal of names from electoral rolls.
He referred to cases in which, according to him, people removed from voter lists were later denied passports on that basis.
“If you are stopping someone from voting, where voting is their right and they want to vote And the sad part is that some people who were removed from the voter list were then denied passports on that pretext. So, if this is not an attack on the Constitution, then what is it? What Rahul said is correct. And now we will have to see what steps are taken to correct this.”
What Election Commission has said about reported dissent
The Election Commission has rejected suggestions that differences between its members amount to a breakdown in its functioning.
According to the Commission’s response reported on Wednesday, individual Election Commissioners may express different views during discussions, but final decisions of the three-member body have been unanimous. It said this applied to decisions concerning the SIR as well. The clarification followed the report that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on at least 14 occasions.
Why the SIR row has returned to focus
The latest political row follows the report that Sandhu and Joshi recorded objections over decisions involving voter registration, deletions and the management of electoral roll data.
The Election Commission maintains that differences expressed during deliberations are part of its internal process and that its final decisions were unanimous. Opposition parties, meanwhile, have continued to question the SIR process and the removal of names from electoral rolls.
