Context

• In India, discrepancies such as duplication, ineligible entries, and ghost voters have long raised concerns about electoral integrity.
• These issues not only open doors to fraud, impersonation and multiple voting, but also corrode public trust in the democratic process.
• While much of the criticism is directed at the Election Commission of India (ECI), political parties themselves share responsibility for enabling this institutional decline.
• A deeper analysis reveals how the ECI’s waning credibility, coupled with the weakening of political parties at the grassroots level, threatens the very foundations of representative democracy.

The Erosion of the Election Commission’s Credibility and Changing Nature of Political Parties

• The Erosion of the Election Commission’s Credibility
  • The ECI, entrusted with maintaining clean electoral rolls, has increasingly faced criticism for opacity and inefficiency.
  • Instead of addressing irregularities, the Commission has attempted to restrict inspection and oversight, thereby deepening suspicion about its impartiality.
  • This is a sharp fall from grace when compared to the 1990s, under T.N. Seshan, when the ECI emerged as a formidable guardian of electoral integrity.
  • At that time, the Commission implemented stringent reforms, from monitoring election expenditure to introducing the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), and surveys consistently ranked it as one of India’s most credible institutions.
  • Today, however, its legacy is under question, its authority weakened, and its integrity doubted.
• Changing Nature of Political Parties
  • While the ECI has been alleged to lose credibility, political parties have also contributed to democratic decay by reshaping themselves into highly centralised electoral machines.
  • Traditional campaign methods, door-to-door visits, community meetings, and street-corner gatherings, have given way to digital strategies such as social media outreach, phone banking, and AI-driven chatbots.
  • These techniques create the illusion of personal connection but bypass the slow, trust-building work of local party organisations.
  • Moreover, political parties increasingly rely on professional consultants who design strategies, craft messaging, and even influence candidate selection.
  • This reliance sidelines local workers, reducing them to mere providers of raw data for analytical models.

The Role of Local Organisations and Booth-Level Agents

• Electoral integrity depends on close collaboration between the ECI and political parties at the local level.
• The Commission’s manual outlines provisions for consultation during voter roll revisions, with political parties expected to scrutinise draft lists and flag discrepancies.
• To formalise this, the ECI introduced Booth Level Agents (BLAs), party representatives tasked with assisting booth-level officers in ensuring accuracy.
• BLAs are meant to scrutinise draft rolls, submit corrections, and act as the crucial link between voters, parties, and the ECI.
• On paper, this system is robust, with safeguards such as limits on bulk applications and requirements for cross-verification.
• In practice, however, recent controversies, such as irregularities in the Mahadevapura constituency of Karnataka, raise pressing questions.
• Were BLAs complicit in manipulating the system? Were they negligent in their responsibilities? Or is there institutional bias favouring incumbents?
• The controversy underscores the dangers of weakened local organisations: when parties abandon vigilance, systemic failures slip through unchecked.

The Way Forward: Reviving Political Parties’ Local Role

• The current crisis presents an opportunity for political renewal. If parties revitalise their dormant local units, they can not only improve electoral roll oversight but also restore their democratic relevance.
• Early signs of such revival are evident in Kerala, where parties are now scrutinising draft rolls more diligently for errors such as duplicate entries and multiple voter IDs.
• This suggests a growing recognition that democracy depends on active engagement beyond election-day campaigns.
• History offers a cautionary tale. In the post-Independence period, weak Congress party units allied with local elites to subvert land reforms, undermining democratic promises of agrarian justice.
• Similarly, today’s neglect of local structures risks distorting democracy itself. Without vigilant grassroots organisations, parties may not merely lose elections, they may lose the very arena of fair competition.

Conclusion

• India possesses a well-designed framework for safeguarding electoral integrity. Yet no system can withstand neglect or manipulation.
• When the ECI hides behind opacity rather than accountability, it erodes the trust necessary for a functioning democracy.
• When political parties prioritise technology and consultants over grassroots networks, they weaken their ability to act as democratic counterweights.
• Electoral roll controversies thus serve as a wake-up call: democracy cannot survive on institutional structures alone.