‘Poll panel or Modi’s personal fiefdom?’ Opposition criticises Form 6 ‘change’, demands rollback

3 min readNew DelhiJul 14, 2026 05:40 AM IST

The Opposition on Monday slammed the Election Commission over a Form 6 “change”, with the Congress accusing the poll panel of having become “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal fiefdom”.

The allegations follow The Indian Express’s report on Sunday that the EC’s online version of the electors’ registration form — Form 6 — has a new section that seeks the status of the applicant’s parents vis-à-vis the last SIR.

Congress’s RS MP Pawan Khera said what the “Genie was to Aladdin, (CEC) Gyanesh (Kumar) is to Modi” as “he simply carries out the master’s wishes”. “The latest example: the EC has introduced a new mandatory section in the online version of Form 6, although the downloadable version contains no such provision, without any prescribed amendment to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The EC, which cannot add even a comma to a statutory form on its own, has inserted an entirely new section — as if it has ceased to be a constitutional body and become Modi’s personal fiefdom,” said Khera.

CPI(M) MP John Brittas wrote to CEC Gyanesh Kumar, demanding a rollback of the provision, saying the EC’s “constitutional legitimacy rests not merely upon the fairness of elections but equally upon scrupulous fidelity to the law governing those elections”.

“By introducing a new mandatory declaration through ECINET portal, without a corresponding amendment to the statutory Rules, the Commission has effectively amended subordinate legislation through executive action. Such an exercise is plainly ultra vires,” Brittas wrote in his letter. “Since Form 6 is prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, any alteration thereto necessarily requires amendment of the Rules thr­ough a notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice and published in the Official Gazette,” said Brittas. EC didn’t respond to a requ­est for comment on the allegations.

The Indian Express had reported that the ECINET portal, as accessed on Saturday, showed an unlettered “declaration form” part inserted between parts “J” and “K” of Form 6, asking for details of the applicant or their parents in the last SIR. But the copy of Form 6 available for download on same portal, ostensibly for filling & submitting physically, doesn’t include new declaration part.