EC holds meetings with political parties at the grassroots level

The engagements aim to resolve any pending issues by the competent authority, i.e., ERO, DEO, or CEO, within the existing legal framework of the Representation of the People Acts 1950 and 1951, the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, and the manuals, guidelines, and instructions issued by EC from time to time. Photo: Election Commission of India via X/@ECISVEEP

The Election Commission (EC) has held nearly 5,000 meetings at the grassroots level with political parties across the country on all pending issues, including the updating of electoral rolls.

Through this engagement drive, the EC’s biggest so far, the commission met over 28,000 representatives of political parties. The meetings come amid allegations of duplicate voter IDs and electoral roll manipulations from many political parties.

The “structured” engagements with the political parties were carried out at the level of Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), District Election Officer (DEO), and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the EC said in a statement on Tuesday (April 1, 2025).

In a span of 25 days, as of March 31, 2025, a total of 4,719 meetings were conducted, with 40 meetings by CEOs, 800 by DEOs and 3,879 by EROs.

“These meetings were held in accordance with the directives issued by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar along with ECs Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi, during the Chief Electoral Officers’ conference held on March 4-5, 2025, at IIIDEM, New Delhi,” the statement said.

The engagements aim to resolve any pending issues by the competent authority, i.e., ERO, DEO, or CEO, within the existing legal framework of the Representation of the People Acts 1950 and 1951, the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, and the manuals, guidelines, and instructions issued by EC from time to time.

An action taken report has been sought from CEOs of all States and Union Territories for further assessment. Any issue, if unresolved within the existing legal framework, will be taken up by the Commission.

The EC said that these engagements have been well-received by political parties, with active and enthusiastic participation across Assembly Constituencies, districts, and States and Union Territories.

The issue of duplicate voter ID numbers was first raised by the Trinamool Congress, which made public a list of people with the same electoral photo identity card numbers. The Congress party, which had already alleged large-scale voter list manipulation during the Maharashtra Assembly polls, also joined the issue. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had raised the matter in Lok Sabha and said that the entire Opposition has been demanding a discussion on voter lists.