New Delhi: There was no need for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi said Tuesday, asserting that the implication of the exercise is that the existing rolls have been “thrown in the dustbin”.
“Our system had already reached 99% accuracy, and this was done with an effort of 30 years… SIR wasn’t needed because the digitisation of electoral rolls was being attempted ever since Seshan saab’s tenure. The rolls had been digitised, and it had 99% accuracy,” he said.
T.N. Seshan was CEC of India from 1990 to 1996.
“It is worth asking what this magic wand is that is being used to accomplish in two months, what we tried doing in 30 years and still reached only 99% accuracy,” he added.
Quraishi was speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Challenges to Electoral Integrity: Examining Recent Evidence of Electoral Manipulations’ organised by Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan in New Delhi.
Also on the panel were economist and political commentator Parakala Prabhakar, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, national convener of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan Yogendra Yadav and former editor of PTI Rajesh Mahapatra.
Quraishi said the Constitution does require the electoral rolls to be perfect, but added that “earlier also they were being done perfectly”.
He said that in 2003 it was decided that since electoral rolls had already been digitised, only a summary revision would be conducted to remove any existing or future discrepancies.
“The Election Commission (earlier) too had the same amount of wisdom that today’s commission has, and there was logic and reason behind the decision that we can achieve the same results with a summary revision as well,” the former CEC said.
Before Quraishi’s speech, Prabhakar made a presentation titled ‘Was there mischief behind the miracle’, taking a closer look at the 2024 Andhra Pradesh assembly poll data.
He raised several questions and highlighted alleged discrepancies in the voter turnout data.
Mahapatra also made a presentation examining the 12.48% “turnout hike” during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Odisha, explaining the “mathematical impact” (of the hike) on 18 parliamentary constituencies.
Following this, Yadav spoke about the delimitation exercise for assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam, which was completed in 2023. He alleged that the exercise was in the nature of “gerrymandering” and claimed that it was used for electoral manipulation.
Speaking after these presentations, Quraishi said he might have trouble sleeping after these revelations, trying to understand and “digest” the claims made.
He spoke about the controversy relating to voter turnout data and Form 17C, which details the votes cast at each polling station, saying that it is supposed to be “real-time data”.
On the alleged discrepancies in voter turnout, he raised a counter-question: “Every polling booth has at least five officials inside and five outside. So, for any improbity, we would have to take 10 people in confidence in every polling booth. For 3,500 booths, 35,000 people would have to be taken into confidence. How would that be possible? I’m unsure.”
He said that while research on the alleged discrepancies was in-depth, these questions also needed answering.
He further said he supports the demands for a forensic audit of election data, including Form 17C, because “elections should also be seen as free and fair and credible”.
“There is nothing to hide. The Election Commission used to be an open book,” he added.
Quraishi went on to question the allegations of EVM swapping as well, explaining the procedure of the sealing of EVMs and their handling on counting date.
“I don’t understand how it is possible,” he said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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