Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (October 1, 2026) alleged that the online Form 6, which is used for fresh voter registration, was changed “illegally” and questioned as to who at the Election Commission ordered Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to make that change.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh claimed that the change in Form 6 was orchestrated by “the PM-HM duo” to remove Gen Z voters from the voter list. Quoting an interview given to by former Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat, Mr. Ramesh said the chorus of voices against the capture of the electoral system is getting louder.

ERONet application

According to the 2024-25 annual report of the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the EC collaborated with technology firm and developed flagship web-based application “ERONet 2.0”.

Earlier, ERONet was managed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), which comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

“ERONet 2.0 application has a centralised database that serves as the single source of truth for the election body. A standout feature is the executive dashboard, which is updated daily and offers a 360-degree view of the lifecycle of electors,” the company said in its customer stories section.

“The ERO Net 2.0 suite of applications includes BLO mobile application which plays a critical role for all elections in the country. As the primary technology partner, TCS helped the election body give a digital makeover to electoral roll management. The application that TCS developed was rolled out nationwide within 7 months of launch, with complete functionalities and data migration. It allows over 1.05 million nationwide officials to handle elector registrations, updates, and deletions efficiently,” it further said.

In January 2026, the Election Commission (EC) integrated ERONet (Electoral Registration Officers Network) into a comprehensive umbrella platform, known as ECINet.

Mr. Gandhi, in a post on X, alleged: “The online Form 6 was changed illegally — as the EC’s own Commissioners have recorded. Who at the ECI ordered Tata Consultancy Services to make that change? He also questioned whether TCS was “pressured” into doing it?”

Mr. Ramesh said: “Form 6 changes were introduced by the CEC unconstitutionally in mid-July 2026 to remove Gen Z voters from the electoral roll. Clearly, the move was orchestrated by the PM-HM (Narendra Modi-Amit Shah) duo.”

According to contribution reports of various electoral trusts for 2024-25, which are available on the Election Commission’s website, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received ₹959 crore as political donations from various electoral trusts in 2024-25, out of which nearly ₹757 crore, which is 83% of the total donations to the party, came from Tata Group-controlled Progressive Electoral Trust (PET).

Tagging an interview to by former Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat, Mr. Ramesh said: “The chorus of voices against the capture of the electoral system is getting louder. Citizens will no longer tolerate vote chori (theft) in any form.”

Mr. Rawat has questioned the special intensive revision (SIR) and the violations committed by the EC. Nearly 14 crore voters have already been disenfranchised by the SIR, he said.

The former CEC said in the interview that it was “the first time since Independence that so many eligible voters have lost their vote”. The EC used to be “the gold standard”, but its credibility has been destroyed, he further said.