Congress protests, evidence still in Form 6
Telangana Congress held protests over the Election Commission’s SIR exercise, but the key allegations remain allegations. The official Form 6 is less dramatic than the politics around it.
The official Form 6 is quieter than the politics around the SIR exercise.
The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee held protests across the state on September 28 against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, according to subsequent reporting. In Hyderabad, TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud and Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka were reported to have submitted a memorandum to Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C Sudarshan Reddy.
Congress demanded explanations on alleged objections by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, the legal basis for changes to the voter-registration process, procedures for altering voter data and accountability for Electoral Registration Officers. It also sought the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The Election Commission has not publicly answered these Telangana-specific demands in the material reviewed.
The important distinction is doing some heavy lifting here. The official Form 6 published by the ECI is an application for inclusion in the electoral roll and contains citizenship, residence and identity declarations. The reviewed PDF does not contain the alleged SIR-related questions about earlier revisions, though the online workflow may differ. The objections, any unlawful deletions and the legal status of alleged changes remain unverified. Congress has a protest record; it does not yet have the underlying documents on the public record. The ECI, meanwhile, has supplied the form and not the answers.