EC holds meet amid SIR row, issue clarification on Cabinet Secretary letter, Form 6

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi met at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi on Saturday and issued a press note outlining decisions on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, enrolment of new voters through Form 6 and matters concerning the Election Commission’s internal functioning.

The note, which carried a photograph of all three Election Commissioners together, also addressed the letter Sandhu and Joshi had sent to the Cabinet Secretary. The meeting came amid controversy over media reports that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on multiple occasions to decisions and orders related to the SIR exercise.

The September 26 press note addressed three key issues: enrolment of new voters, the extension of timelines for the ongoing SIR exercise and concerns raised in a September 23 report by The Indian Express, which also triggered a wider political and legal row over the functioning of the poll panel.

This is a developing story. It will be updated. - Ends

Aishwarya Paliwal has been a journalist for the past 7 years, currently working with India Today covering Finance Ministry and the Election Commission.

She has worked in Mumbai for 6 years, where she was coevring Maharashtra government, the Enforcemeent Directorate and Income Tax. Her forte now is - finance ministry, businesses, corporates and election commission along with doing impactful stories (stories from Punjab on farm burning, understanding the issues from Amritsar to Patiala,in depth stories on working on Election Commission, first election in independent India held during a pandemic).

On ground reporting - nothing gives a journalist more satisfaction than getting real stories from the people. She has covered Delhi riots when buildings were burning vehicles were torched, pollution in Delhi-NCR, farmer protest when farmers had surrounded the national capital,Anti-CAA protests.

Stories on data intelligence, word counts have also been done by her.