Top Maharashtra poll official seeks more powers for EROs to handle voter discrepancies

S. Chockalingam, Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra. File photo: Special arrangement. Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam has requested the Election Commission of India to make changes to the ECINet software to allow Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to exercise discretion on anomalies in electoral rolls, an official said on Tuesday (September 29, 2026).Referring to a news item in The Indian Express, which first reported the development, an official in the State poll body said the senior IAS officer made the request to the Commission in a letter sent on September 24.The request has been accepted, the official told PTI.“Chief electoral officers from all states do send their suggestions to the Commission frequently and it is nothing new,” the 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,” he said.The Commission has extended the deadline for filing claims and objections for the SIR from September 30 to October 12 in Maharashtra.Enumeration forms of as many as 2.07 crore voters in the State could not be collected or were marked as absent, deceased, shifted or duplicate entries.The letter flags "logical discrepancies" such as mismatches in a voter’s parents’ names or age details, the official said. It also sought the power to exempt voters from a hearing when officers are satisfied with the documents submitted, he said.Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Congress demanded action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the statutory powers of electoral registration officers (EROs) to decide voter eligibility were being diluted through the ECINet system.State Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said, "If there are anomalies or discrepancies, the statutory authority to decide who is a voter and who is not rests with the ERO.”These powers were being taken away through the ECINet system with the involvement of officials including Director General of IT Seema Khanna and Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, he claimed.ECINet is a unified digital platform by the Election Commission of India to streamline electoral processes and enhance transparency and accessibility.The Commission and the CEC have come under fire after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months to decisions and orders regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), some of which they said were issued without their knowledge.The Opposition parties have accused Mr. Kumar of taking unilateral decisions in favour of the ruling establishment.Mr. Londhe claimed that Mr. Kumar's appointment as the CEC was facilitated by changes to the selection process for Election Commissioners, including removing the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee and replacing him with a junior Union Minister, giving the government a majority in the panel.He also criticised the legal immunity granted to Election Commissioners, claiming that it protected them from civil and criminal proceedings for acts done while in office. Published - September 29, 2026 05:59 pm IST