Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has described the Election Commission's earlier changes to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process as "outrageous mistakes", saying the poll body's decision to roll back some of them vindicates concerns repeatedly raised by the Opposition.

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Reacting to the Election Commission of India's decision to remove the SIR declaration from Form 6, Tharoor alleged that the poll body had introduced changes without proper authorisation and ignored objections raised by the Opposition and even two other Election Commissioners.

"This was amongst the most outrageous mistakes," Tharoor said, arguing that the public had not fully understood the extent of what he described as administrative and bureaucratic failures under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

He pointed to the changes made to Form 6, used by people applying for inclusion in the electoral roll. According to Tharoor, the Election Commission had unilaterally altered the form by adding a declaration that was not authorised under the existing rules and laws.

"This is what the Opposition was complaining about," he said, adding that the change had also drawn objections from the other two Election Commissioners.

The Congress MP also questioned the handling of Form 7 applications, which are used to seek the deletion of names from electoral rolls.

Tharoor alleged that the Election Commission had permitted bulk submission of Form 7 applications containing thousands of names, including in states such as West Bengal. He claimed that this had resulted in people being denied their voting rights on the basis of mere suspicion.

He said the Opposition had been raising these concerns for some time, but its objections had not received adequate attention.

'We wanted more than Gyanesh Kumar's resignation'

Tharoor said the Opposition's demands went beyond seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It had also called for the reversal of decisions taken during the SIR exercise and the restoration of voting rights to people who may have been wrongly excluded.

"We wanted not just Mr Gyanesh Kumar's resignation," he said, adding that the Opposition had sought an end to what it considered wrongful decisions under the revision exercise and the reversal of their consequences for innocent citizens.

Tharoor also referred to what he described as 113 million votes being cut from the electoral register, citing the figure as one of the reasons for the Opposition's objections to the process.

Welcoming the Election Commission's decision to roll back some of its earlier changes, Tharoor said it addressed one of the demands the Opposition had been making.

He also pointed to the proceedings in the Supreme Court, claiming that the hearings were demonstrating that the Opposition's objections had been justified.

"What the Election Commission did was wrong; we have been saying it is wrong," he said, arguing that the developments showed the Opposition had been right to question the poll body's handling of the SIR process.