GOA CURRENT : GYANESH EC IS BLOCKING ELIGIBLE GOANS’ VOTES

GYANESH EC IS BLOCKING ELIGIBLE GOANS’ VOTES A major investigation by The Indian Express into the functioning of the Election Commission during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has revealed a deeply troubling Goa story. According to the investigation, following a Supreme Court direction of January 29, 2026, voters flagged for “logical discrepancies” were given an opportunity to submit documents and be heard before publication of the final electoral roll. In Goa, Electoral Registration Officers heard these cases, examined the documents and found *97 voters eligible for inclusion in the final electoral roll*. Yet their names were not restored. The Indian Express reports that the software did not provide Goa’s EROs with a mechanism to record and implement their decision. Between February 11 and February 17, the office of Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer consequently wrote to the Election Commission in Delhi *eight times in seven days*, seeking a “rollback option” that would allow the EROs to restore voters they had already found eligible. The communications were addressed to Senior Deputy Election Commissioner *Gyanesh Bharti, who was responsible for Goa, and copied to Election Commission Director General (IT) **Seema Khanna*. According to the Express investigation, the requests went unanswered as the deadline approached. The rollback facility was not enabled in time, the final electoral roll was published, and *97 voters whom Goa’s own EROs had found eligible remained excluded*. This revelation assumes even greater significance because INK Goa had already conducted a detailed, data- and document-based investigation into Goa’s SIR exercise. The figures were staggering. Goa had 11,85,034 electors before SIR. At the draft stage, **1,00,042 names were excluded. There were subsequently another **39,592 deletions and 12,166 additions. Goa’s final electorate stood at 10,57,566 — a net reduction of *1,27,468 electors, or 10.76%*. So 97 may appear small. But if voters who reached the hearing stage, submitted documents and were actually declared eligible could still remain outside the electoral roll, an important question arises from INK Goa’s earlier investigation: Are these 97 the entire story — or only the small documented tip of something much larger in Goa’s SIR exercise? In this episode of *GOA CURRENT*, Sujay Gupta examines the Indian Express revelations, the eight communications from Goa to Delhi, the failure to restore the 97 eligible voters and how this connects with INK Goa’s earlier investigation into the massive SIR deletions in Goa ALSO WATCH :    • SCRUTINY - NO GYANESH S.I.R; JUSTIFY VOTER...