ECI’s credibility questioned: former CEC Ashok Lavasa

Former Election Commissioner (EC) Ashok Lavasa. File | Photo credit: SIDDHANT THAKUR

Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Ashok Lavasa has said that the credibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI) is being questioned following the controversy over the alleged erasure of voters’ names. At a public convention in Kolkata, Mr. Lavasa said that voters in the country had never faced such mass anxiety before.

“It is with great sadness and regret that I say that the ECI has become embroiled in so many controversies that people are on the road demanding the resignation of the CEC; India has never seen such a day. This is unfortunate in a democracy,” Mr. Lavasa said.

Mr. Lavasa said that when such revisions happened earlier, there was no mass anxiety among the people of the country and that this was due to the unprecedented steps taken by the ECI, including mass filing of Form 7 to wipe out voters, new questions in Form 6 without government permission or new categories like court and others.

The former CEC also added that the way the Supreme Court said that if a person does not get to vote in one election, it is not a major problem and that he can vote in other elections is shocking. “Indian institutions which were supposed to protect the rights of Indians are taking a very casual attitude towards these rights. This is deeply disturbing,” Mr Lavasa added. He further shared the hope that ECI can regain its credibility in the coming days

Several stakeholders of society including former bureaucrats, politicians, educationists, journalists, advocates, social activists and many others were present at the event to share their insights on the growing controversy surrounding Special Intensive Review (SIR), ECI and CEC Gyanesh Kumar.

Actor and activist Prakash Raj, who also shared a video message at the convention, said that SIR is a dangerous disease that is being used to kill democracy in the country. “They are trying to divide the country into two parts: people who can vote and people who can’t vote. That way they can have control where the elections are fixed and the opposition has no way to raise its head,” Raj said.

Former Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal Jawhar Sircar, who was also part of the mass convention, said that the ECI had taken many illegal decisions. “They must be tried on conspiracy charges even if they resign after the current movement,” Sircar said.

Former IAS officer Anita Agnihotri, who also worked on electoral roll revisions earlier, said the SIR process was a human tragedy. “We have always been told that voting is an important right of the people and we have gone to great lengths to include even the last person in the list so that they can exercise their rights. Now it is reversed; we are making every effort to see how people can be excluded,” Ms Agnihotri said.

Published – 14 Oct 2026 06:00 IST