First time so many eligible voters lost their vote to SIR: former CEC OP Rawat

When Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi found that their objections were not being heard, especially on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, they should not have stopped at dissenting remarks, said former Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat. Instead, the two ECs should ensure that all decisions taken against their will are reversed at the next meeting of the three-member commission, he said.

The third member of the Election Commission of India (ECI) is Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

In an exclusive interview with The Hindu on Wednesday (September 30, 2026), Mr. Rawat criticized the manner in which the SIR was conducted, noting that it was the first time since Independence that so many eligible voters had lost their voting rights.

“They had the majority”

Dr. Sandhu and Dr. Joshi formally protested various aspects of the SIR, 14 times over a ten-month period. Their objections related to several ECI decisions, including changes to Form 6 and the added declaration of the ECINet portal, which asked new voters whether they or their parents or grandparents appeared in the latest SIR voter list.

“They had a majority (in the ECI). The very next meeting, when their first objections were not heard, they should have reversed all the decisions taken that they were against. They should have taken the right decision that would prevail. So it is clear that they did not take that route,” the former CEC said.

Mr. Rawat headed the polling authority between 23 January 2018 and 1 December 2018. He was the Election Commissioner since 2015.

“No veto for CEC”

Describing the functioning of the ECI, the former CEC said that Commission meetings are usually held very regularly. A day was set aside for this every week, and other meetings were also held. “All kinds of permutations and combinations have been used to ensure that decisions are quick, efficient and no backlogs suffer,” he said.

Asked how commissioners reach consensus, Mr. Rawat said that when members are not on the same page, meetings help them understand each other’s point of view and reach an agreement. In the “one in a million” cases where consensus cannot be reached, he said, there is the possibility of a vote where the majority opinion prevails.

“The Chief Election Commissioner himself has no veto. Absolutely not. He is equal to other commissioners,” he said.

Loss of voting rights

About the SIR process in West Bengal, he said the damage was done even before the assembly elections. “93% of the excluded voters, whose appeal was decided by the tribunals, were found to be eligible and did not exercise their right to vote in the elections. This is very serious for democracy,” he emphasized.

Mr. Rawat said that the Supreme Court in its Bihar SIR judgment had upheld the right of the Election Commission to carry out any special revision of the rolls.

“The initial paragraphs will give the impression that the Electoral Commission is all-powerful. But the last paragraph says that the Electoral Commission will refer all cases of questionable citizenship to the competent authority. And once the competent authority decides, their names can be listed again,” he noted. “But what happens to their vote? None of that.”

“ECI had to respect Supreme Court order”

Asked about the changes in Form 6, which is usually meant for new voter registrations but is now also used to fill in names wrongly excluded during SIR, Mr Rawat said the ECI is doing so based on the May 27 Supreme Court judgment.

“And since it is the verdict of the Supreme Court, we all have to obey and follow. Actually, I can’t say anything beyond the order of the honorable Supreme Court. I have to obey, respect the order of the Supreme Court. Even though so many eligible voters have lost their right to vote for the first time after independence. Even so, I have to respect the order,” he said.

Responsible to people

The former CEC said the recent controversies had cast a shadow over ECI’s reputation, which was otherwise a “pound” around the world. “We’ve been called the gold standard everywhere,” he noted.

Offering advice for the future, Mr Rawat said the ECI would “do well to come out and make it clear to the people of this country who are the real sovereigns and the constitutional institutions are only their representatives”. According to him, a joint press conference of all three commissioners would significantly clarify all “black clouds of doubt”.

Published – 30 Sep 2026 21:10 IST