The Election Commission of India (ECI) has postponed two Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) regional conferences in Uttar Pradesh that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was scheduled to address, officials said Friday.
The outreach programme was to be held in Meerut on Friday with an interaction with young voters on Friday, followed by a similar Gen-Z engagement event in Varanasi on September 28 (Monday).
An ECI official said the decision was not linked to the ongoing controversy, and that the two conferences were postponed on September 21 and the decision was communicated to officials the same day.
Deep Dive
Why were the outreach events in Uttar Pradesh postponed by the Election Commission of India?
What is the significance of the Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs) in the context of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections?
How have internal disagreements among Election Commissioners impacted the electoral roll revision process?
“Adjustments in dates of events is an ongoing process which is necessitated by various factors such as availability of venues, schedules of higher authorities, natural factors,” the ECI official said.
The decision to put off the conferences comes against the backdrop of a controversy following the report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders of the Election Commission, including on additions, deletion and restoration of voters and changes to the voter registration process.
The ECI has maintained that it took all decisions unanimously.
{{/usCountry}}The ECI has maintained that it took all decisions unanimously.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said there had been many occasions in the past when such ELC conferences were postponed or rescheduled in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Uttarakhand.
Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs) are a voter-education initiative run by the ECI in schools and colleges to familiarise young and first-time voters with the electoral processes. These include registration, polling, counting, and the Commission’s constitutional role.
The current phase, branded ELC 2.0, is being rolled out through regional conferences held state by state, and forms part of the commission’s broader outreach ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.