Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has alleged that the Election Commission of India’s Director General of IT, Seema Khanna, exercised control over electoral-roll software in a manner that allowed voter names and lists to be centrally added, deleted or altered in West Bengal.
In a post on X, Moitra accused Khanna of acting “as a law onto herself” and alleged that she was “aided by Gyanesh Kumar”, the Chief Election Commissioner. Moitra claimed that the software was used to bypass election officials on the ground who had access to ERONet, the Election Commission’s electoral-roll management system.
Her remarks came on Wednesday after a report by The Indian Express detailed concerns raised internally by two of the three Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, over the centralisation of control of the electoral-roll database.
Election Commissioners flag concerns over software control
According to the report, Sandhu and Joshi have formally raised objections on at least 14 occasions over the past 10 months regarding decisions and processes linked to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
A key concern relates to the access available to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are the statutory authorities responsible for preparing and maintaining electoral rolls in individual constituencies. The two commissioners have questioned whether these officers are being prevented from exercising powers assigned to them under election law because of restrictions imposed through the software.
In August, Sandhu recorded that several Chief Electoral Officers, District Election Officers and EROs had reported that they did not have “proper and complete access” to ERONet. He said their statutory powers had been curtailed through centralised control of the system at the DG IT level.
Sandhu also questioned whether the DG IT had the legal authority to restrict the access and freedom to operate granted to statutory election authorities.
Joshi had earlier warned in May about what he described as the “gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database”. He proposed an audit involving an outside expert from an IIT to certify that only the legally designated authorities had credentials to make changes to the voter database.
Sandhu subsequently backed the proposal, but later recorded that he was unaware of any action taken on the recommendations.
West Bengal among states affected by the dispute
The controversy is particularly significant for West Bengal, where the Special Intensive Revision process became the subject of extensive legal and political scrutiny.
The Indian Express reported that the Supreme Court in February 2026 moved the final stage of the revision process in West Bengal outside the direct control of the Commission by directing judicial officers to deal with voters flagged for “logical discrepancies”. The Commission subsequently reported that 27 lakh electors had been deleted, while tribunals were later constituted to hear appeals against such decisions.
The report also highlighted concerns over the ability of ground-level officials to implement decisions through the software. In Goa, for instance, EROs reportedly found 97 voters eligible for inclusion in the final roll after examining their documents, but were unable to record their decisions because the software lacked the necessary rollback facility. The Goa Chief Electoral Officer's office wrote repeatedly to senior officials seeking the required functionality.
These developments have fuelled questions over whether the technology used to administer electoral rolls is operating consistently with the statutory authority assigned to EROs.
ECI had earlier defended ECINET as legally compliant
The Election Commission launched ECINET in January 2026 as a unified digital platform integrating more than 40 of its applications and portals. ERONet, which manages electoral-roll functions, is part of the broader technology architecture.
At the launch, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said ECINET had been developed in strict accordance with the law. The Commission said the platform complied with the Constitution, the Representation of the People Acts, the Registration of Electors Rules and the Conduct of Election Rules.
Khanna, the Commission's Director General of IT, described cybersecurity as a key pillar of ECINET and said the platform would enhance transparency, efficiency, credibility and public trust in elections.
The Election Commission's own officers directory lists Seema Khanna as Director General (IT), while Gyanesh Kumar is listed as Chief Election Commissioner.
The latest allegations therefore come amid an unusual internal dispute within the poll panel over who should have technical access to the electoral-roll database and how much control should remain with statutory officers at the state and constituency levels.
Moitra's post goes further by alleging that the software was deliberately used to “centrally add, delete & manipulate voter names & lists” in Bengal. Those claims have not been independently established, and the available reporting instead documents internal concerns from two Election Commissioners about centralised access and the functioning of ERONet and ECINET.