Congress MP Jairam Ramesh; CEC Gyanesh Kumar

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday accused the Election Commission (EC) of “lying” about its ECINet portal, alleging that the platform was not in accordance with the law.Congress MP Jairam Ramesh also questioned the “intentions” of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, describing them as “not honest.”“In its damage-control but actually damage-enhancing press note on September 26, 2026, the Election Commission of India had promised a committee to certify that the legally suspect ECINet ‘complies with the provisions of the Acts and Rules’. In reality, this should never have been in doubt at all in the first place if the intentions of the CEC Gyanesh Kumar were honest—which they were not,” Ramesh wrote on X.He was referring to the poll panel’s statement last week, issued days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the previous 10 months to decisions and orders related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which they maintained had been issued without their knowledge or recommendation.“ECINet was launched on January 22, 2026, with much fanfare to ‘enhance transparency, credibility and public trust’. The ECI press note issued that day assured the country that it ‘has been developed in strict accordance with the law’ and in full compliance with the Constitution of India, the Representation of the People Acts, 1950 and 1951, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960,” Ramesh wrote.“All of this was a lie,” he added.Ramesh further accused the EC of “violating” laws governing the electoral process.“By restricting Electoral Registration Officers’ (EROs) access to the ECINet voter-roll system and overruling EROs in states such as Goa and West Bengal, among others, the ECI under the CEC has violated the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Both laws establish that EROs have statutory authority over electoral rolls,” he posted.

The Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday announced joint “Save Democracy” marches across all districts and five major rallies. It also called for future elections to be conducted using ballot papers and urged the Supreme Court to expedite cases concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and alleged electoral “malpractices”.At a meeting attended by leaders of 19 political parties, the opposition grouping decided that all its MPs would march to the Election Commission on October 6, while its leaders would meet the President to raise concerns over alleged irregularities in voter-list revisions.The opposition bloc also discussed demanding the Chief Election Commissioner’s resignation and declared that it would not relent until he was removed from office.