Mamata All India Trinamool Congress (MAITC) MP Mahua Moitra has accused former Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal of misleading the court over allegations that electoral registration officers (EROs) in the state were unable to access certain features on the Election Commission of India's ECINET portal.
Sharing a report on X, Moitra alleged that the restriction prevented officials from reviewing voters' enumeration forms and accessing the notice-and-hearing dashboard. She also claimed that she had raised the issue directly with Agarwal earlier this year.
"Manoj Agarwal ex CEO WB is a VOTE CHOR (and a liar) - he claimed in court I provided no proof . So I will prove everyday that he is a Vote Chor who disenfranchised millions. I sat across table from him in Feb/ March & told him EROs could not access. He laughed ghoulishly then:" Moitra posted.
The allegations follow a third-party audit of ECINET's publicly available code, which reportedly found a Bengal-specific restriction on access to two features available to electoral officials in other states.
Audit flags restrictions on ECINET portal
According to the report, the audit was conducted by civic-tech initiative 'Charchagram'. Its examination found that the code prevented EROs and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) in West Bengal from accessing the 'View Enumeration Form Details' page and the notice-and-hearing dashboard.
The audit reportedly found the restriction in code fetched as recently as October 19. No similar exclusion for officials in other states was identified in the code examined.
The 'View Enumeration Form Details' feature allows officials to see voters' names, identification numbers, uploaded documents and booth-level officer recommendations. The notice-and-hearing dashboard is designed to track and process notices related to voter registration and electoral roll revision.
ECINET restriction raises questions
The report said the audit could not independently establish whether the restriction had been used or when it was introduced. The Election Commission did not respond to a questionnaire sent by the newspaper seeking clarification.
According to the report, the feature was present on the landing page for the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), but an exception had been written into the code for Bengal.
The findings have added to the political dispute over the electoral revision process in the state, with Moitra alleging that the restriction affected officials' ability to access voter-related information.