Press release by @SpokespersonECI almost fully corroborates the investigative report by @RitikaChopra__ and @DaminiNath in the @IndianExpress. For anyone tracking the legal and administrative nuances, this comes as no surprise. But it is baffling to see that some zealots still find this press statement a vindication of the CEC and other ECs. Here is part 1 of the factual, administrative, and legal position regarding the points raised in the ECI's press note: ✅First and foremost, does it require an IIT Professor to tell the Commission as to what statutory powers are vested in EROs, DEOs, CEO and ECI? The ECINET Portal was illegally centralised, even if for varying durations, and I know it from the horse's mouth! Did the other two ECs concur with this decision? Answer is no. The last line of point (iv) is particularly telling. ✅And look at point number (vi). So, agenda will be circulated and minutes will be issued now onwards? Was this not already being followed as a matter of standard and fair administrative practice all along? ✅ Making matters worse, during the SIR since 2025, the preparatory timelines was compressed from 74 in 2002-03 days down to just 6 days, leaving field officers with rushed, & inadequate training. The ECI should have listened to the early warning signs and feedback from its own ground staff and reversed this decision months ago at least after administrative fiasco in Bihar, instead of waiting until an Indian Express investigation and wrath of 'VIPs' pushed them to the wall. ✅ After not letting Special Summary Revision take place since January 2024 as reported by @anubhutivishnoi of @EconomicTimes, Gyanesh Kumar CEC seems to have now relented under public pressure as per point no. 2 of the Press Note. ✅ I have continuously questioned the bizarre administrative decision to dump the entire burden of voter mapping onto the citizens (with a glitchy web interface) while abdicating the rest of the verification process to automated machines for issuing mass notices. This automated purge would have gone completely unchecked if 'VIPs' in the national capital hadn't started receiving these notices themselves. Now, there appears to have been a belated realisation of a major faux pas, and the onus is being shifted to the BLOs. But why was this not done right from the outset - saving everyone’s time and effort and, more importantly, avoiding unnecessary harassment of genuine voters? The irony is that the BLOs, most of whom are teachers, will now have to return to the field and undertake this exercise, requiring far more time and effort than would have been necessary had this important verification been incorporated into the original house-to-house survey. @vijaita has rightly highlighted this aspect. Let's dig this aspect deeper: 1⃣ Point number 2(d) of the ECI circular 14.05.2026 on SIR in 19 States and UTs prohibits collection of any document during the Enumeration Phase. So, an earlier directive of not collecting one of the 11/12 documents, for the unmapped electors or those having discrepancies with SIR 2002-03 was reiterated in unequivocal terms exacerbating the mess further. 2⃣ Instead of allowing the BLO to apply his/her own judgment during the second round of house-to-house visits - after assessing the nature and extent of the mismatch with the SIR 2002–03 records, or the circumstances underlying a so-called “logical discrepancy” - the process appears to have been left largely to the computerised system. Thus, if “S.S. Sandhu” happened to be recorded as “Sukhbir Singh Sandhu” during the 2002–03 SIR, the system automatically generated a notice! Singular differences triggered the rejection instead of seeing the voter data holistically. 3⃣ And so did several millions in Delhi and crores in the entire nation. An alarmingly large part of the electorate was thus driven to completely unnecessary chaos. One hopes that the legal eagles like @KapilSibal @Mukul_Rohatgi Harish Salve @_YogendraYadav et al and serious journalists like @sardesairajdeep @RitikaChopra__ @dhanyarajendran @BDUTT will continue to follow this issue of paramount importance to the nation.