EC’s statement ‘confession not clarification’, an ‘admission of guilt’

• EC’s 26 September press note addresses several allegations but leaves questions over meetings, ECINET access, Form 6 changes and deputation-related travel unresolved

• Questions remain over West Bengal’s 16 lakh appeals and the unprecedented decision by two commissioners to approach the cabinet secretary over alleged administrative and illegal acts

• The note triggers opposing reactions: BJP and NDA leaders hail it as a rebuttal to The Indian Express report, while critics question the ECI’s functioning and accountability

The three election commissioners, The Indian Express reported, did not meet even once in the four months between May and August 2026. In September, however, they have already met twice, on 9 and 26 September. The 9 September meeting reportedly followed two of the commissioners taking the unprecedented step of writing to the cabinet secretary to complain of alleged illegal acts within the Election Commission of India. The 26 September meeting followed the newspaper’s report and growing demands for the removal of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The lame exercise in damage control has, however, ended up doing even more damage. It confirmed that agendas and minutes of meetings were not being circulated within the ECI and that records were not being maintained. It confirmed that employees on deputation were travelling abroad without due approval from and consent of the commission. It also confirmed that there were misgivings about ECINET, which the commission has now offered to have examined by a committee with an “independent” professor from IIT Delhi as an expert. It also confirmed that the format of Form 6 was illegally changed, although the Election Commission is not authorised to do so.

The ‘clarificatory’ press note issued on Saturday also confirmed that access to ECINET was illegally centralised and access of statutory authorities in the field, the electoral registration officers (EROs) were restricted.

The note is totally silent on the 16 lakh appeals against inclusion of voters made allegedly on behalf of the Election Commission in West Bengal. Commissioner S.S. Sandhu asked in writing who filed those appeals to the Appellate Tribunals and who was authorised by the Election Commission to file those appeals? He also recorded that even the chief electoral officer in West Bengal was not aware about it, implying that this was done at the behest of someone in Delhi.

The West Bengal case is still being heard in the Supreme Court. The Election Commission had informed the court during a hearing that 38 lakh appeals were pending before the 19 appellate tribunals, out of which 22 lakhs were for inclusion of their names and complaining that SIR had wrongfully left them out; and 16 lakh appeals were against inclusion of names after adjudication by judicial officers on the directions of the Supreme Court. The clarificatory note says nothing about it.

The ECI’s press note also tries to gloss over the unprecedented act of two commissioners writing to the cabinet secretary. The note justifies the letter by saying that the two commissioners had not complained about ‘policy differences’ but had flagged an administrative issue related to allocation of work within the commission. The question is why the issue was not sorted out within the commission and why the commissioners did not write to the CEC but to the cabinet secretary.

Election commissioners are not bureaucrats but hold Constitutional posts and the two commissioners in any case constituted the majority in the commission. Why did they not requisition meetings and declared illegal acts null and void?

“The Election Commission is not a private club. All the three commissioners have demonstrated their incompetence to run a Constitutional office,” said Bharat Jodo Abhiyan convenor Yogendra Yadav. In an interview to Barkha Dutt for her YouTube channel, he did not mince his words. The CEC Gyanesh Kumar is undoubtedly a villain but the other two commissioners are also not heroes. In all fairness, they should all resign, he declared.

BJP leaders, however, hailed the press note and claimed it exposed the Opposition which, they said, had launched an unfounded attack on the Election Commission after The Indian Express on 23 September reported that two of the three commissioners flagged numerous illegal and unconstitutional acts in the ECI. The report stated that the two commissioners had put their objections in writing 14 times in the past 10 months. The Election Commission was not taking unanimous decisions and was divided.

BJP leaders, therefore, grasped at the ‘show of unity’ in the ECI on Saturday, which released a photograph of the three commissioners sitting together but without the trademark grin on the face of the CEC Gyanesh Kumar or the hints of a smile on the other two seen in the past. They looked solemn yesterday, if not grim.

That was, however, enough for NDA leaders to exult and post identical messages claiming that the Opposition had been exposed.

“The photo answered all the innuendos,” posted BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on X. It is now clear that The Indian Express played a mischief and did a hit job, exulted investor and former Infosys executive T. Mohandas Pai. Andhra Pradesh chief minister and BJP ally N. Chandrababu Naidu in a statement claimed that the unanimous clarification issued by the Election Commission has put to rest all the misconceptions surrounding it.