India, Sept. 23 -- Roughly 17.6 million voters across Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi have received notices under a single, controversial category - logical discrepancy - as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls grinds through its third phase.

Behind these numbers is a piece of software -ERONET, which now sits within the poll body's umbrella software ECINET-and an institutional fight over who controls it. This fight has pulled in two sitting Election Commissioners, the Commission's Director General of IT, and the Cabinet Secretary.

ERONET, or the Electoral Roll Officers' Network, processes enumeration forms and attempts to match a current elector with a corresponding entry in the base rolls. And in Telangan...