The intense and unabated protests happening around and about the Election Commission of India (ECI) have thrown up a bigger question — whether the much vaunted Indian election is losing its shine. This concern is irrespective of when and how the immediate fire is doused, for the smoke could linger. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and its management have raised many questions during the last year, inviting attention, litigation and agitation. But the malaise facing the Indian electoral system is even wider. The unidimensional nature of the present noise might be drowning a larger challenge; the current scenario may only be a wakeup call.
Elections, branded as among India’s topmost soft powers for decades, may have finally hit a phase of devaluation. The country’s enviable delivery of democratic elections, compared to dozens of countries in Asia, Africa and West Asia, which became independent around the same time, might have had the evil eye cast on them. Not only election managers, but the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, the winners and the losers in elections, as well as the wider voting community need to be play an alert remedial role in order to properly address the concerns of the electoral system.
Prime asset
Popular and credible elections have given the Indian nation critical stability, reasonable governance, post-colonial reconstruction and a pathway to development, besides the tenacity to counter external threats. The exercise of equal franchise by the sick and the elderly and by a people who are unequal socially and economically is part of India’s electoral folklore as also are the latest trends of women activism in voting. Despite rampart poverty and illiteracy at the time of independence, ordinary Indians have learned about the strength of their votes, and have nurtured a respect for the polling process. They wait for their turn periodically to place or remove candidates at positions of decision making.
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The process has worked remarkably well compared to other parts of Indian enterprise. Apart from the framers of the Constitution led by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, who laid the seeds of parliamentary democracy, the credit duly rests on the ECI machinery, from the Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi to the million plus polling booths across the country. The scale of the task — the 2024 national elections saw about 98 crore electors spread across India’s vast and varied topography — with the massive logistics that it entails, and the finesse of its disposal, have kept advanced nations wonder-struck. The ECI has justifiably emerged as a school for election managers from a range of countries which are still groping for ways to execute such a huge and sensitive mandate. Further, the Commission set up the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) to impart lessons in conducting flawless elections. Younger nations look up to India’s election management as a guiding star amidst other falling models.
However, there are grey, if not dark clouds on the horizon. It may still be an exaggeration to suggest that the Indian elections are corroded but malignant encroachments cause an unsettling feeling. While elections have always been fiercely contested, with even a few social faultlines such as caste and community getting interwoven into the outcome, the results were mostly received with stoic calm. But no more. What has taken over are chronic allegations about the partisan conduct of the poll body, and aggressive grievance bordering on a rejection of the electoral results. The argument that this is part of a global decline of democratic values, and has also infected developed democracies such as the U.S., holds no consolation. No country on earth needs democracy more than India does. No country needs elections more than India does.
A different game
Elections in India have changed with the times. Ground level campaigns and door-to-door canvassing have given way to digital battles where fast moving disinformation and deep fakes are the new weaponry. While muscular assaults such as booth capturing, voter intimidation, and bogus voting of the earlier decades were bad enough, they were still limited to certain pockets. Now, the possibility of manipulating the voter database through undue enfranchisement or disenfranchisement poses a threat at a larger scale.
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The influence of money power over elections, with its ability to upset the sacred level-playing field, has grown enormously compared to localised distribution of cash or goodies in the past. Expenditure reports of candidates submitted to the ECI post-election, and accounted party spends are just tip of the icebergs; unofficial estimates of poll finances are much larger. The institutional release of cash into the wallets of population segments, touted as welfare, has distorted electoral integrity, besides public finance. The Economic Survey 2026 puts the strain of such unconditional cash transfers on States at a staggering ₹1.7 lakh crore. Such brazen transactions through the front door have subverted policy and candidate level contest, causing worries to the ECI and the Supreme Court.
Post poll subversion casts a darker shadow. Wholesale defections increasingly undermine the people’s mandate for a candidate and party. Instead of reining in party hoppers, the anti-defection law has induced the bulk transfer of elected legislators thanks to exceptions allowed in the 10th Schedule. Opportunistic realignments have made a mockery of voters’ choice in the absence of a recall system. The stream of present-day lawmakers dumping manifesto and ideology and switching parties at ease, make the earlier ‘Aya Ram Gaya Rams’ in Indian politics look like timid angels. The Speaker’s recognition and symbol allocation by the ECI are critical follow ups to such mutations which have also not been free of partisan accusations.
Election management itself has got embroiled in institutional issues sparking opposition and street protests. The SIR exercise, which began a year ago, has left a trail of dust while approaching the finish line. Meanwhile, the provision of appointing Election Commissioners through a collegium under the 2023 enactment has not helped matters; and is still under the study of Supreme Court. The usual regulatory functions of the ECI such as the preparation of the electoral roll, the administration of the Model Code of Conduct, the announcement of results, and more recently, intra-organisational functioning are routinely moving into zones of contention, despite significant back up from higher courts. The distrust vocalised by polarised political entities can percolate down to ordinary citizens and create hopelessness.
Sukumar Sen, the Chief Election Commissioner for the first elections conducted in independent India in 1951, had unimaginable logistical challenges to handle, but certainly not one of trust. Today, after 75 years of experience and growing resources, while the massive logistics in elections is routine, trust has become the issue.
Urgent, collective imperative
Elections are by far the best organised expression of “we, the people” and hence cannot be allowed to fail. Political rhetoric is not part of the solution. The election process and its management are too precious to be made scapegoats in inter-party fights. Political parties need to do a collective and apolitical sit-down for the systemic fortification of Indian elections by building more safeguards and accountability and plugging structural and legal loopholes — basically, doing whatever is necessary and whatever it takes. The introduction of a three-member Commission to replace the single Chief Election Commissioner in 1993 had this very logic. There are multiple demands to be met: the better regulation of political financing and the menace of freebies; shielding of the electoral process from criminalisation; and dealing with the threat of AI-abetted fake narratives. Voters as well as those who are voted for must be insulated against inducements in discharge of their democratic functions. Arresting further deterioration will require collective work beyond partisan self-interest. And above everything else, trust has to be worked back into the system.
Akshay Rout is former Director General, Election Commission of India and a public policy commentator. Views expressed are personal.