Why the monitor in India faces a trial of trust

The Indian Election Commission (ECI), one of the most trusted state institutions in the world’s largest democracy, faces the test of its authority.

Over the last few weeks, this has caused a number of allegations of opposition, ranging from fraud with voters and manipulations to inconsistency in electoral rolls. This refused it.

Opposition leaders, who in recent days held mass protests against the ECI, said they were considering impeachment about the removal of the Main Election Commissioner from their post. They did not file a petition until Thursday, on the last day of the Musson Parliament session, and there are currently no numbers to view it.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Main Congress of the Opposition Party of India, launched 16 -day, 1300 km (807 miles) – known as voter decline Yatra (voter march) – in Bihar to protest against ECI, noting dramatic escalation in political struggle. Bihar having a gala Heated disputes over the recent version election rolls.

Gandhi first made charges Vote the theft In August, accusing the ECI conspired with the Bharati ruling party (BJP) to set up a general election of 2024.

Using granulated data from ECI’s own records, he claimed that the Parliamentary District in the Southern Karnataka had more than 100,000 fake voters, including voter duplicate, invalid addresses and volume registrations in uniform places.

The ECI repeatedly called the claims “false and mislead.” And BJP persistently denied these accusations with leader Anur Takur saying Congress and the opposition came together to make these “unreasonable claims” because they were waiting for losses in Bihara.

Gandhi’s press conference was held as a dispute in Bihara.

A special intensive edition (SIR) took place between June to July, and the ECI said its representatives visited all 78.9 million Bihar voters for checking.

The ECI claims that this was done to update voter lists after more than 20 years, but opposition leaders say that in the process, there may be tens of thousands of people, especially migrants, from the rush with which it was conducted and the difficult documentation required as evidence.

After the updated list project was published on August 1, several reports, including BBCThe mistakes of counting, such as the wrong floor and photos, assigned to the names of the people, and the dead voters on the rolls, were allocated.

The new project of the rolls has 72.4 million names – 6.5 million less than before, and the commission stated that the omissions include duplicate, dead and voters. Those who believe that their names were mistakenly deprived were granted until September 1 to appeal.

Meanwhile, criticism has also intensified over the way ECI published the names of 6.5 million people who were expelled from the projects.

Opposition parties asked why the commission made scanned physical copies, not machine lists of low voters, which could be independently tested by analysts and political parties.

In the end, the Supreme Court of India told the ECI to publish a voter list, as well as to declare the reasons for their exception.

The court’s intervention emphasized “ECI procedural failures” and should be regarded as “rap on bones”, an editorial The leading Hindu newspaper was told.

Against the backdrop of the ECI criticism spent a rare weekend Press -conference August 17 to resolve some charges.

“If you use conditions such as theft of voting and misleading citizens, what would you call it except for insulting the India Constitution?” Election Chief Election Commissioner Ganesh Kumar said, citing Gandhi’s allegations.

He referred to the decision of the Supreme Court of 2019 to say that the opposition’s demand for voters could impose privacy.

He also demanded that Gandhi either apply under the oath, proving his allegations, or apologized to the nation for his remarks.

But instead of putting a case, the statements have caused further outrage when some opposition politicians accused Kumar of avoiding answers to specific questions or give unsatisfactory explanations.

Pavan Herre from Congress told BBC Hindi that “Kumar’s competition” at a press conference did it as if the BJP leader was performing. “

Experts say that Gandhi’s accusations or the fact that millions of new voters have been added or removed from rolls in Bihar, do not prove any violations.

“When the voter list is intensively checked, such big differences should happen in the number,” said the former Na Gopalaswami BBC Tamil election commissioner.

Mr. Gopalaswa added that when an electoral participation in the southern state of Karnatak was removed in 2008, about 5.2 million voters were removed, and almost one million people are applied again.

He also agreed to the ECI’s signed statement by Gandhi, saying that the answer to the allegations without a written complaint creates a bad precedent for the institution.

But when Gandhi’s voter rights were hiking and the Bihara elections, the issue is unlikely to die.

“Regardless of the election commission, the opposition will certainly make it a problem in the upcoming election in Bihar,” said Senior Journalist Gupto BBC Hindi.

At the same time, there are big problems that play all about the public’s trust in the ECI.

“The Trust, which ECI once commanded is almost indisputable, is now under high,” wrote the former chief election commissioner in Kurajishi in the Indian Express Glass.

He added that while “the procedural architecture of transparency in the elections remains in place … The perception of impartiality is as important as its reality. Strengthening this trust is as important as the provision of technical accuracy.”

According to a poll published this month, Lokniti, a research program at the Educational Society Center (CSDS), Trust to ECI has decreased dramatically.

Sanji Kumar’s chief agency was separately in the intersection of the ECI and the BJP after he apologized for sharing the wrong data on the voter turnout in Maharashtra, but its findings in other states indicate an increase in confidence in ECI.

In all six states polled by CSDS in 2025, the number of people who have not trusted the EU has increased dramatically from 2019 – in the Uttar -Pradesh, the most popular state of India, during this period increased from 11% to 31%.

This is a systematic erosion, Mr. Kumar said Wire The news portal “must be great excitement” for the commission.

“Not only the confidence of the opposition has dropped, but also trust among people.

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