Congress slams EC’s ‘U-turn’ on readable voter rolls, demands CEC’s resignation

The Election Commission on Thursday ordered an annual special summary revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union Territories, directing that political parties be provided with readable PDF copies for the first time, but the Congress dismissed the move as “too little, too late” and demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation K C Venugopal accused the poll body of attempting to reverse course after causing damage under what he described as the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and insisted that the notification would not undo the alleged irregularities.

“Gyanu, it’s not enough bro. You must resign and turn approver,” Venugopal said in a post on X, adding that the Congress had been demanding machine-readable voter rolls since 2025. He maintained that transparency was the bare minimum expected of the constitutional body and could not absolve it of responsibility for its previous decisions.

Claiming that alleged “vote chori” had disenfranchised 13 crore Indians, Venugopal described it as an “act of treason” and called for the reversal of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alongside changes to the process for appointing election commissioners.

The SSR will cover 17 states and Union Territories, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur, where Assembly elections are due early next year. The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on January 4, while the exercise is intended to ensure that eligible voters are included ahead of the forthcoming polls.

Under the revised arrangements, recognised political parties will receive draft and final electoral rolls without photographs in readable PDF format, replacing the image-based PDFs supplied earlier. They will also be provided with supplements recording additions, deletions and modifications at the draft stage, while candidates in poll-bound states will receive copies of the draft and final rolls.

The Commission will additionally make alphabetically arranged electoral rolls available through pen drives and other electronic storage devices for a prescribed fee, rather than restricting distribution to CDs or DVDs. Electoral Registration Officers will also share weekly lists of claims and objections alongside the previous week's printed list, improving access to information.