Delhi electoral portal allowed party agents to exceed daily deletion limit, report says

Booth-level agents in Delhi were able to bypass a daily limit on voter-deletion applications through the Election Commission’s ECINET portal, according to an analysis reported by The Hindu. The Commission’s Special Intensive Revision guidelines state that a booth-level agent appointed by a recognised political party must not submit more than 10 applications a day after publication of the draft electoral roll. The portal, however, reportedly had no mechanism to enforce that limit online.

BJP booth-level agent Chitresh Chandoliya filed 35 objections over two days, including 12 on September 21 and 23 on September 22, according to an analysis of statutory Form 10 reports. Three other people also filed more than 10 objections in a single day. Chandoliya said he filed the applications online because submitting them at an election office would have restricted him to 10.

He said the portal allowed him to log in as an ordinary citizen using Aadhaar authentication without identifying himself as a booth-level agent. The report also found examples in which residents’ names were challenged on the grounds that they were absent or had permanently shifted. In Patel Nagar, two men said they were living at the addresses listed in their forms and had not requested deletion, even though their names had been challenged.

Between September 21 and 26, 1,095 Form 7 objections were filed. About 80 per cent were filed by individuals against their own names, according to the data cited. One application appeared to challenge a 20-year-old’s name on the ground of death.

The report said deletion objections were being disposed of faster than inclusion applications, although objections require notice, a hearing and a speaking order. Since the draft roll was published on August 31, 1.54 lakh inclusion applications and 3,435 deletion requests had been received. The claims deadline was extended from September 30 to October 30.