India Must Have An Election Commission Above Suspicion

By Dr. Gyan Pathak

There has never been a time since independence when the Election Commission of India (ECI) came under such a great public distrust as it has been freely expressed now. ECI is supposed to do its duty as a neutral umpire in electoral battle, but unfortunately at numerous occasions it seemed functioning as just an extension of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Autonomy of this Constitutional body has been clipped through legal instruments. During elections, it has been seen favouring PM Narendra Modi, most strikingly with respect to his hate speeches, and after election, it has been blocking even electoral data.

Election of Haryana was held on October 5 2024, and of Maharashtra were held by November 2024. Nevertheless, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has to seek now after 7-8 months delay an ‘exact date’ for the handover of the electoral data. “Good first step taken by EC to hand over voter rolls. Can the EC please announce the exact date by which this data will be handed over in a digital, machine-readable format?” he asked.

How the government has been interfering with the election process, and the Election Commission of India has been bowing down to the wish of the PMO was obvious in December, 2025, when the Union Ministry of Law amended Rule 93(2) of the 1961 rules, to restrict the type of “papers” or documents open to public inspection.

The matter even went in the Supreme Court of India, in which petitioners said that the Conduct of Elections (Second Amendment) Rules, 2024 violated Article 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution by restricting citizen’s access to crucial election-related documents. Government said it needed to protect the privacy of the voters. It was clear that government was an interested party for not providing the electoral data, the ECI is not giving the data. The question is what the ECI and the Modi government want to conceal by blocking the data. Where then the transparency in the electoral process? And how can one believe in the neural electoral process, when darkness is being meticulously maintained both by the government and the ECI.

This is not the single instance of ECI following the wish of Modi government. Let us recall the electoral bond scheme case. Even after the Supreme Court of India had declared Modi government’s electoral bond scheme illegal months before the Lok Sabha election 2024, and giving orders to the ECI to publish details of the donors and beneficiary political parties, the ECI had tried their best not to publish them with some argument in the Supreme Court of India. It was only after insistent of the Supreme Court of India, ECI had to publish the data. ECI was clearly seen aligning with PM Narendra Modi, just by giving argument that it needed to protect the privacy of the donors as per the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018.

Why the three-member election commission has become so week that it should follow the diktat of PM Narendra Modi? It is because the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service, and Term of Office) Act of 2023, which has made two election commissioners constitutionally unprotected. Only Chief Election Commissioner is constitutionally protected against removal. Their terms will depend on the wish of the CEC. Moreover, under the news law power to appoint them rests ultimately on Prime Minister, which was secured by removing the Chief Justice of India from the appointment committee, which eroded the neutrality in appointment of the election commissioners. No transparency remains in the appointment of Election Commissioners.

In November 2021, Union Ministry of Law had asked CEC to attend a meeting with PMO, and the CEC attended the meeting. It was clearly a case of PMO’s subordination of the ECI. When controversy erupted, Union Minister of Law released a clarification, saying that it was a nodal agency, and there were several issues relating to electoral reform were pending since 2011. PMO also clarified that it was an “informal interaction”.

There has been a systematic weakening of ECI. One can see it in the incident happened during 2019 elections. There were complaints against PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah on violation of Model Code of Conduct for elections which included hate speech. ECI’s majority ruling had given them clean cheat, but one of the ECs had given dissent note. Thereafter, Income Tax Department issued notices to his wife for a period prior to his appointment as EC. The dissenting EC then even stopped attending meetings saying “minority decisions” were being “suppressed in a manner contrary to well-established conventions observed by multi-member statutory bodies.”

There has also been resignation of an Election Commissioner during the Lok Sabha election 2024. Differences between the CEC and EC during a meeting in Kolkata erupted and the EC after returning to Delhi had to resign, since ECs don’t have constitutional protection against removal under the new law.

These are few of the cases that suggests the erosion of the ECI’s constitutional autonomy. Under such a backdrop, Rahul Gandhi’s allegations on ECI can’t be summarily dismissed. He has alleged that Maharashtra election was “rigged” in November 2024. He made five specific steps through which the election was rigged.

“Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission; Step 2: Add fake voters to the roll; Step 3: Inflate voter turnout; Step 4: Target the bogus voting exactly where the BJP needs to win; Step 5: Hide the evidence…It’s not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing. The side that cheats might win the game, but (it) will damage institutions and destroy public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers,” Gandhi said.

Now several other opposition leaders have demanded answers. People need answers directly from the ECI, but unfortunately the allegedly beneficiary party BJP and their leaders are answering on behalf of the ECI. Then where is the accountability of the ECI? India certainly needs an ECI above suspicion, which it must restore now. (IPA Service)