ECI affidavit on SIR is ‘deceitful and duplicitous’: Congress

Doubling down on its attack against the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on Tuesday (October 27, 2026), the Congress said the Commission’s affidavit in the Supreme Court was “deceitful and duplicitous”.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge listed instances of alleged irregularities in the SIR from 12 States and one Union Territory, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of trying to suppress the movement against “vote chori (theft)”. 

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh described the ECI’s 248-page counter-affidavit as “deceptive, deceitful and duplicitous”, adding that it was “extremely damaging” to the Commission itself. 

The ECI has sought the dismissal of petitions challenging its decisions on the SIR, maintaining that the exercise was authorised by law and that the relevant orders had been approved unanimously by all three members.

Form 6 changes

Mr. Ramesh alleged that the Commission had engaged in “patent deception and word games” over Form 6, which is used for voter registration. He said the ECI had earlier claimed that a new declaration attached to the form had been upheld by the Supreme Court, but was now arguing that the declaration was separate and that Form 6 itself had not been amended. 

The Congress leader maintained that the declaration was made mandatory for online submission and accused the ECI of violating the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

He also alleged that the ECINET platform had been used to centralise control over electoral rolls and override electoral registration officers, who are the statutory authorities. 

‘Web of deceit’

Mr. Ramesh said concerns raised by two Election Commissioners over the functioning of the ECI’s information technology division had been disregarded, while allegations of mass deletions and other irregularities continued to emerge from States conducting the SIR.

“Once a person starts lying, they get entangled in their own web of deceit. And when this pattern continues for a long time, eventually their lies begin to surface in one way or another,” Mr. Ramesh said.

In a separate post on X, Mr. Kharge said the Opposition INDIA bloc would continue its democratic struggle to protect every citizen’s vote and the Constitution.

“As more skeletons tumble out of the Election Commission’s cupboard, exposing Vote Chori, Modi-Shah are trying hard to suppress the people’s movement! Why are they protecting [Chief Election Commissioner] CEC Gyanesh Kumar?” Mr. Kharge said in a post on X. He added that the government’s “diversionary tactics and bogus propaganda” were discrediting it and tarnishing democracy.

Also read | CEC row Updates: SC defers hearing on pleas against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, decisions during SIR

Slew of red flags

The Congress chief shared a graphic which highlighted 10,470 irregular Form 8 changes in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit that triggered an FIR and a Statewide audit; the exclusion of 2.07 crore names from Maharashtra’s draft rolls; the 47.5 lakh names excluded from the draft rolls in Delhi; and the success of 93% of decided voter-exclusion appeals in West Bengal after the Assembly election.

The graphic also flagged nearly 30 lakh discrepancies between the ECI and State Election Commission rolls in Rajasthan, as well as the exclusion of 68.12 lakh names from Gujarat’s electoral rolls after the SIR.

Other allegations included the 61,059 Form 7 deletion applications filed by election officials in Karnataka, more than 3,000 deletion applications in Odisha’s Dhamnagar, and the 4.35 lakh verification hearings pending in Haryana as of October 1.

The ECI had earlier rejected the allegations as misconceived, maintaining that its SIR orders were issued in accordance with Article 324 of the Constitution and the law governing the Commission.