The Election Commission has pulled the rug out from under two senior electoral officials in Uttar Pradesh, ordering the immediate suspension of Electoral Registration Officers Mayank Goswami and Hemant Chaudhary in the Pilibhit Assembly constituency. The directive, sent to Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa, is not a mere administrative reprimand. It’s a hard stop. Neither officer can return to duty without the Commission’s explicit, prior approval, and their chargesheets are now under direct scrutiny by the top tier of the poll body.
The numbers behind the suspension are stark. An internal probe found that a computer assistant at the voter registration centre allegedly misused login IDs on the ECINET portal to enter 13,779 Form-8 applications for voter detail changes between May 31 and August 29. While 3,309 of these were rejected, 10,470 were approved. The kicker? The office couldn’t produce a single application form or supporting document for those 10,470 entries. No paper trail. No verification. Just approved changes in the digital roll.
The legal hammer is now falling harder. The Commission has instructed that Section 198 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, be added to the existing FIR filed against the two EROs and Anil Kumar, the computer operator. This section deals with public servants acting corruptly to commit an offense. The poll body’s language left no room for ambiguity: the cases must be pursued rigorously. It’s a clear signal that the ECI is treating this not as a clerical error, but as a potential criminal breach of public trust in the integrity of the electoral roll.
The fallout extends beyond the two suspended officers. CEO Navdeep Rinwa has already ordered the deactivation of ECINET portal IDs for all computer assistants in the state, following earlier complaints of credential misuse in Pilibhit. District election officers are now tasked with personally verifying the actions taken in every Assembly constituency and submitting compliance reports without delay. The firm that outsourced the computer assistant involved in the Pilibhit case has been told to terminate the employee’s services immediately. The state’s electoral machinery is now on high alert, with every digital entry under a microscope.
The controversy first erupted when opposition parties, led by the Congress and Samajwadi Party, alleged large-scale manipulation of the electoral roll in the 127-Pilibhit constituency. Those allegations triggered the inquiry that has now led to suspensions and enhanced criminal charges. The next step is clear: the ECI will review the chargesheets against Goswami and Chaudhary, and the police must now build a case that stands up to the added severity of the BNS section. For voters in Pilibhit, the question isn’t just about who’s in charge of the roll anymore—it’s whether the roll itself can still be trusted.