Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the online Form 6, which is used for fresh voter registration, was changed “illegally” and asked who at the Election Commission ordered Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to make the change and whether the company was pressured into doing so.
“The online Form 6 was changed illegally – as the EC’s own Commissioners have recorded. Who at the ECI ordered Tata Consultancy Services to make that change? Who at TCS signed off on it? And were they pressured into doing it?” Gandhi said.
His questions came amid a controversy over an additional SIR-linked declaration added to the online version of Form 6, the statutory application used by new voters to seek inclusion in electoral rolls.
Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to the alteration, saying the statutory form could not be changed without following the prescribed legal process, as per reports.
The declaration required applicants to provide information linking themselves or their parents or grandparents to earlier electoral rolls. The issue was among at least 14 objections recorded by Sandhu and Joshi over decisions relating to the electoral-roll revision process in the past 10 months.
The Election Commission has since withdrawn the additional SIR-linked declaration from Form 6 in states where the revision exercise has been completed. The decision followed objections within the Commission, with the EC saying the statutory Form 6 itself had not been changed and the additional declaration was linked to the SIR process.
The withdrawal, however, has not ended the political controversy. Gandhi’s questions put the focus on the chain of responsibility behind the digital change, from the ECI decision to its implementation by TCS.
The Congress has alleged that the change was made without the authority required to amend a statutory form and has demanded that the Election Commission disclose how the decision was taken.
