Bhopal, September 23, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Former Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat on Wednesday termed the exclusion of eligible voters a “grave sin” amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The controversy intensified after a leading newspaper reported that two Election Commissioners had allegedly “objected on record” to several decisions of the poll panel, claiming they were not aware of certain matters. The ECI has rejected the report.
Speaking to IANS, Rawat said the issue should be clarified by the three members of the Election Commission themselves.
“There are different opinions about this. The best thing would be for all three of them (Election Commissioners and Chief Election Commissioner) to sit together and clarify in a press conference what the matter was,” he said.
Rawat pointed out that decisions of the Election Commission are taken either through consensus or by majority and said any reported dissent would therefore need to be examined in that context.
“If there was dissent, then a decision could not have been taken. Because a decision by the Election Commission can only be taken either by consensus or by a majority vote, and not otherwise,” he said.
However, the former CEC also raised concerns over what he described as mistakes in the SIR exercise from its initial implementation in Bihar.
He said the Election Commission subsequently made efforts to improve and streamline the process but pointed to developments in West Bengal that, according to him, highlighted the consequences of excluding eligible voters.
“Gradually, the Election Commission improved the process and tried to make it smoother. But recently in West Bengal, the appellate tribunals ruled that 93 per cent of the voters who had been excluded were eligible and should be added back to the electoral rolls,” Rawat said.
He said the affected voters had consequently been deprived of an opportunity to exercise their franchise and described their exclusion as a “grave sin”.
“An institution like the Election Commission should never allow such a thing to happen, and it should now thoroughly review the SIR process so that such a grave sin never occurs again,” he said.
The ECI, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that every officer within the institution is fully authorised to offer suggestions aimed at improving the electoral system.
The Commission also emphasised that several decisions had been taken unanimously in recent months and said differences of views, observations and suggestions were a normal part of deliberations within an institution.
According to the ECI, the decision-making process involves not only the three Election Commissioners but officials across the organisation.
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