Can the Election Commission Block Any State's Access to Voter Data via ECINET? Digital Audit Reveals EROs and AEROs from West Bengal Restricted from Accessing Enumeration Forms, Notice and Hearing Details

ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA’S web portal, ECINET, is the digital platform through which the entire process of voter registration, deletion, rectification is being managed. However,  a recent report by Charchagram — a civic-tech initiative aimed at strengthening accountability and transparency in public systems — has revealed that there is a feature that can bar the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs (AEROs) in West Bengal from reviewing enumeration forms and viewing the dashboard for notices and hearings.

This revelation was made by an audit conducted by Charchagram, which found this feature present in the portal on October 19, 2026. While this tech-audit was not independently verified by Newsgram, it places a serious question on the transparency and legitimacy of the election commission’s actions, especially when a political row revolves around Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the country. 

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Interestingly, Abhishek Banerjee — Trinamool Congress National General Secretary — had flagged the exact concern in February 2026. Taking to X, Banerjee had written that EROs are not able to monitor the progress of AEROs on the ECINET portal in relation to the SIR process in Bengal. 

What did the Audit by Charchagram Reveal?

The audit was done by Saurav Rajput, a data scientist and alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta. It was carried out on October 2, 6, 7 and 9, and found that there was a difference in the code for EROs in West Bengal and all other states. 

The audit, which scratched through the code of the website, found that the part on “view enumeration form details,” which was accessible on the SIR Phase II page, was available to the officers, with an exception for West Bengal. 

Building on the investigative report by The Indian Express, Charchagram posted its findings on X, stating that they found a code in ECINET’s website revealing how the SIR process could be centralized. “We found that the code has a disabling feature for the State Nodal Officers also the warning message says that the enumeration form can be disabled for some states,” their post on X read.

The digital audit trail — Charchagram stated — found that this disabling feature is exclusive to West Bengal, as the option for accessing the enumeration forms is available to EROs in other states. “Our technical audit of the ECI’s publicly accessible codebase found a West Bengal-specific configuration that can restrict ERO access to the Enumeration Form,” explained Saurav Rajput in a post on X. 

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In an interview with Hindustan Times, Saurav further iterated about the nuances of the webportal, citing how this exclusion covered the “notice-and-hearing” dashboard. 

Audit Report Draws Criticism Towards ECINET Portal Amid SIR Row

The revelations have drawn sharp criticisms from the opposition political parties, civil society groups and voter-rights platforms alike.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Saurav detailed the portal’s mechanisms, stating that while they did not have access to earlier versions of the portal’s code, there is no clarity on whether this rule existed before or has changed.  However, Saurav stated that he had come across this feature since September 28, 2026.

Taking to X, Saurav wrote that, “If EROs are expected to independently carry out their electoral duties, why does the system have a state-specific functionality that can restrict their access to the Enumeration Form?” 

Congress General Secretary of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, leveled a strong statement against the election commission’s role, claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had put in the ECINeT to manipulate and centralize the election process. “It is by now well-established how Gyanesh Kumar, at the instance and instructions of the PM and the HM, put in place ECINET to centralise all manipulations of the election process,” wrote Ramesh on X. 

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Trinamool Congress National Spokesperson, Nilanjan Das, also charged harshly at the ECI Gyanesh Kumar. He wrote on X, “ Entire process was illegal, controlled remotely from @ECISVEEP Delhi by Vote Chor Gyanesh Kumar & Cyber Terrorist Seema Khanna. 

The criticisms went beyond the political opposition in the parliament and the state of West Bengal, as Civil rights activist and journalist, Teesta Setalvad, pointed out the “TCS-ECINeT nexus” in the SIR process, stating that the efforts to silence the claims of vote chori (Stealing of votes) will not succeed. “ No amount of efforts by powers that be & #GodiMedia to silence #VoteChori succeeds,” wrote Teesta Setalvad on X. 

(Edited by Harsh Pandey)

(Rh/AR/HP)

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