Mumbai, Maharashtra — Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam has formally requested the Election Commission of India (ECI) to modify the ECINet software so that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) can exercise discretion when dealing with anomalies in the electoral rolls, an official said on Tuesday.
What the change asks for
In a letter dated September 24, Chockalingam sought an alteration to the centralised ECINet platform to permit EROs to make decisions on notices generated by the system about discrepancies, the state election office said. The request, reported first by The Indian Express and confirmed to PTI by a state official, has been accepted by the Commission, the official added.
The state official said the plea was aimed at addressing what the office termed "logical discrepancies" — for instance, mismatches in a voter's parents' names or variations in age details — which currently trigger system-generated notices that are handled centrally.
Context: huge volume of problematic entries
Enumeration forms for as many as 2.07 crore voters in Maharashtra were either not collected or were marked as absent, deceased, shifted or duplicate entries during the Special Summary Revision (SIR), the state poll body said. The ECI had initially set a deadline of September 30 for filing claims and objections; the Commission has extended this to October 12 in Maharashtra.
| Item | Figure/Date |
|---|---|
| Enumeration forms with issues | 2.07 crore |
| Original deadline for claims/objections (SIR) | September 30 |
| Extended deadline (Maharashtra) | October 12 |
| Date of CEO's letter | September 24 |
What the state official said
“The software is always centralised, and notices are sent from there. We requested that EROs be allowed to make decisions on the notices regarding any discrepancy,” the official said, explaining the rationale for the change.
Political reaction
The move has drawn criticism from the Maharashtra Congress, which alleged that the change amounts to dilution of statutory powers vested in EROs. State Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe demanded action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, saying that the authority to decide voter eligibility should rest with EROs and not be removed through ECINet procedures.
"If there are anomalies or discrepancies, the statutory authority to decide who is a voter and who is not rests with the ERO," said Atul Londhe.
Londhe also named other officials he believed were involved in the process, including Director General of IT Seema Khanna and Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, alleging their participation in changes to ECINet. The state poll office and the ECI have not released a formal public response to the political allegations beyond confirming receipt and acceptance of the technical request.
Practical implications for voters and EROs
If implemented, the modification would permit EROs to exempt certain voters from hearings when documentary evidence satisfies the officer, according to the state official. That could speed up resolution of many cases where a voter's identity or particulars are not in dispute but have small clerical or database-driven mismatches.
- Extension of public claims period to October 12 gives voters more time to file objections or claims during the SIR.
- Allowing ERO discretion could reduce backlog of notices generated by ECINet, state officials say.
- Opposition parties view the change as a shift in where statutory decision-making power lies.
Broader background
ECINet is the Election Commission's unified digital platform for managing electoral rolls and related processes. Chief electoral officers of states periodically send suggestions to the ECI for software changes; the state official noted this request was part of that routine engagement. Yet the scale of anomalies in Maharashtra's SIR has focused attention on how centrally generated notices are handled and on the balance between centralised IT systems and the on-ground authority of EROs.
With the revised deadline in place, district election offices across Maharashtra will continue enumerations and disposal of claims and objections. Voters flagged under the categories of "absent, deceased, shifted or duplicate" are being encouraged to check their details and submit required documents within the extended window to avoid inadvertent disenfranchisement.
Further technical or policy changes to ECINet would require coordination between the ECI's central IT wing and state election machinery; any formal notification on alterations to user permissions for EROs would be issued by the Commission, the state official said.
