Gaurav Gogoi Questions ECI Over Delay in Modern Voter Roll System

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president and Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi on Thursday issued an urgent appeal to the Election Commission of India (ECI), demanding the immediate implementation of machine-readable electoral rolls for all upcoming assembly elections, including Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry. He warned that India cannot continue relying on manual voter list preparation systems that leave open serious vulnerabilities for manipulation and fraud.

Addressing a press conference at Congress Bhawan in Jorhat, Gogoi said the current process of compiling voter lists is outdated and easily exploited. “India is the world’s IT superpower, yet our voter lists are still prepared manually by booth-level officers in less than 30 days. This outdated system has become the biggest gateway for large-scale manipulation and insertion of fake voters,” he stated. Gogoi added that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly raised this issue, insisting that only technological intervention can prevent last-minute fraudulent additions. “Only technology can stop last-minute fraudulent inclusions that become impossible to detect or prove once voting ends,” he said.

Gogoi also questioned Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Election Commission’s continued reluctance to modernise voter rolls. He demanded accountability from the constitutional authority, asking, “It is high time the Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner gives a clear public answer: Why does India still not have machine-readable voter lists in 2025? Why is the Election Commission shying away from centrally available advanced software and continuing to depend on a manual process prone to large-scale abuse?”

The Congress leader placed four key demands before the Election Commission. These include the immediate rollout of machine-readable electoral rolls for all upcoming polls, complete digitisation and centralised software-based preparation of voter lists, public disclosure of any technical limitations preventing the adoption of modern formats, and a strict audit trail for every addition, deletion, or modification made after the draft rolls are published.

Warning that the credibility of Indian democracy is at stake, Gogoi said electoral transparency must be prioritised. “Protecting the integrity of the vote is the first duty of any constitutional authority. Reading the Preamble inside the Central Hall is meaningless if we cannot guarantee that every vote cast belongs to a genuine citizen. Machine-readable voter lists are now a national necessity to save Indian democracy from systematic erosion,” he asserted.

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