The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday sought to put up a united front in the face of mounting criticism of its functioning, underlined that all decisions on the special intensive revision were unanimous, and clarified on key questions raised by the government and the Opposition.
It also alleged that election officials found their access to the ECI software curtailed by the central IT team. It pushed back against allegations of centralisation of its backend software but added that a panel will review the oversight and access mechanisms. “Field officers have role-based access to the ECINET system as per their statutory powers.
On Monday, an Indian Express investigation said Sandhu and Joshi had recorded written dissents and objections at least 14 times between November 2025 and August 2026 and even written to the cabinet secretary. ECI also said that in Goa – where 97 voters deemed eligible to be included in the electoral roll by local election authorities found themselves deleted in the final roll – the chief election officer directed concerned booth-level officers to conduct house-to-house visits to left-out voters to collect their forms.
ECI has said differing views and observations were a normal part of deliberation and that all its digital platforms operated under strict data security protocols to prevent unauthorised tampering or manipulation. “81 voters out of 97 have already filled Form 6 for inclusion,” the note added. A committee headed by senior deputy election commissioner (DEC) and including an independent expert from IIT/IIIT will review the ECINET to double-check that it complies with the provisions of the acts and rules and submit report to the commission,” it said.
In the first public meeting of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and election commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi since the controversy began earlier this week, ECI sought to push back on criticism of its backend software, set up a review and said any future decisions on new digital initiatives will involve further discussions and checks.
