As the Election Commission launches a special drive in 20 states to bring back voters “left out” in the SIR, its officers are staring at a unique problem: persuading lakhs, possibly crores, of people to fill Form 6, the “Application Form for New Voters,” which asks them to declare they are applying “for the first time.” Form 6 is the right route back, and officials say signing it invites no legal action. But people who’ve voted for decades balk at calling themselves new, and many believe the declaration is false. Against that backdrop, Maharashtra’s CEO has proposed a fix: drop “New Voters” from the title, and let the deleted say they were enrolled before and cite their old EPIC number. Break by @vallabhozarkarr indianexpress.com/article/in… via @IndianExpress

In September, @IndianExpress' investigation revealed that two Election Commissioners had written separately to the Cabinet Secretary seeking action against a senior officer inside the EC. What happened to those letters is now on record. File notings obtained under RTI by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) show the Cabinet Secretariat discussed the letters on August 3 & 4, then decided to do nothing beyond acknowledging them. The reasoning? Sandhu and Joshi had written in their individual capacity, not as the Commission. “In the absence of any official communication from the Commission as a whole, any action at this stage may be inappropriate. It may also be construed as interference in the functioning of the Constitutional Body.” The Commission, as our investigation has shown, had not met as a full body for FOUR months. indianexpress.com/article/in… via @IndianExpress

The Election Commission has filed its reply in the Supreme Court to the petition on how the three-member Commission functions. 27 pages, approved by all three members. Its argument: every decision was unanimous, and a Commissioner’s note is a “suggestion,” not a decision. Here’s what it addresses, and what it doesn’t. 🧵 (1/10)