The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday said it has postponed two Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) regional conferences in Uttar Pradesh that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was scheduled to address, saying changes to official event dates are part of a routine administrative process, according to Hindustan Times.
Kumar was scheduled to visit Meerut on Thursday and Varanasi on September 28 for the conferences.
The ECI said the dates were changed due to various logistical and administrative factors, including venue availability, the schedules of senior officials and natural conditions.
“Adjustments in event dates are an ongoing process and are necessitated by various logistical and administrative factors,” the poll panel said on Friday.
The clarification comes amid a fresh controversy over the functioning of the and reported differences among its members.
The Commission said postponement or rescheduling of ELC conferences was not unusual and had happened previously in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Uttarakhand.
It also stressed that the decision to postpone the two Uttar Pradesh conferences was taken on September 21, before an Indian Express report highlighted alleged differences among Election Commissioners.
“There have been many occasions when the ELC conferences had been postponed/dates changed earlier also,” the said.
The poll panel said that the decision regarding the two Uttar Pradesh conferences was taken two days before the Indian Express report was published.
The ECI is conducting ELC 2.0 programmes in phases as part of its voter-awareness initiatives ahead of the 2027 state elections.
Electoral Literacy Clubs are aimed at familiarising students and young and first-time voters with the electoral process, democratic values and the functioning of election-related institutions.
The ELC 2.0 initiative carries the tagline “Learn Democracy. Lead Democracy”. According to the Commission, the programme seeks to encourage young voters to understand democratic processes and participate meaningfully in elections.
The postponement of the Uttar Pradesh events comes days after the Indian Express report claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over 10 months, between October 2025 and August 2026, to decisions and orders related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
According to the report, the two commissioners had raised objections to decisions that they said were taken without their knowledge.
The has rejected suggestions of an institutional rupture, saying that internal technical notes, written queries and differences of opinion are part of the decision-making process in a multi-member constitutional body.
The poll panel has also maintained that all final decisions relating to the SIR process were taken unanimously and have full legal sanction.
