Party-appointed BLAs bypass ECI cap for 10 applications a day through its own portal for deletions
An investigation reveals that political party-appointed booth-level agents in Delhi are bypassing Election Commission caps on deletion applications by using the ECINET portal. While manual submissions are limited to 10 forms per day, the online system lacks the software constraints to enforce this rule.
Why it matters
This loophole raises concerns about the integrity of electoral roll management and the potential for mass, unchecked deletions of voters.
Even as the Election Commission’s SIR guidelines cap the number of applications during the claims and objections period that a booth-level agent (BLA) can submit at 10 per day after publication of the draft electoral roll, BLAs in Delhi can bypass the cap through the ECINET portal. The software doesn’t have a mechanism to impose the limit prescribed for the political party-appointed BLA, violating its own guidelines.
BJP BLA Chitresh Chandoliya, for instance, filed 35 objections in two days — 12 on September 21 and 23 on September 22 — all through the ECINET portal, an analysis of Form 10 statutory reports between September 21 and 26 shows. Three other people also filed more than 10 objections in a day last week.
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