New Delhi, 23 September—In an unprecedented show of unity, the opposition today demanded the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, with AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray calling for Kumar’s arrest.
In an yet another attack on the CEC, Cockroach Janata Party Co-convenor Saurav Das stated that the right to vote for change has been stolen pointing to the publication of a news story in the Indian Express underlined that “the single most important story of Modi years”. Das underscored that electoral integrity was inseparable from the ability of citizens to demand and effect political change.
The remarks came after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected at least 14 times in 10 months to decisions relating to electoral-roll management, including voter additions and deletions, changes to Form 6 and the centralisation of voter-roll data.
The report showed that more than 13 crore names had been struck off draft electoral rolls across 30 states and Union territories during the SIR exercise.
Sandhu had called changes to Form 6 “unauthorised” and “illegal”, while Joshi had questioned whether the statutory form could be altered without amending the relevant rules.
“For several months, meetings of the Election Commission have not been taking place, while Gyanesh Kumar has continued issuing orders on his own. Therefore, the entire SIR process, through which 13 crore names have been deleted across the country, is illegal because the Election Commission has not officially approved it,” Kejriwal said in a news conference.
“We demand that the entire SIR process be cancelled, that all changes made under SIR be cancelled, and that the voter list from three years ago be restored,” the AAP chief said.
Kumar should be arrested and a case of sedition should be registered against him, he added.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee also reacted to the report. “There will be pan-India protests till Gyanesh Kumar remains CEC. He must be immediately arrested and put behind bars. The chair of the CEC is not for a person like him. It’s another fight for freedom, this time from the compromised CEC, and the BJP that has destroyed India,” she said.
Addressing a news conference, Uddhav Thackeray demanded that the last elections in Maharashtra, Bengal and Tamil Nadu be nullified and repolls be held in these states using ballot papers.
“Gyanesh Kumar should be immediately sacked and jailed,” the former Maharashtra chief minister said.
“I thank Election Commissioners (ECs) Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi for exposing Gyanesh Kumar,” Thackeray said.
Reacting to the report, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut echoed the same sentiment as Kejriwal, and said, “Gyanesh Kumar will go to jail! He will have to go! Their masters will flee the country and run away!”
“If Modi ji isn’t taking action against Gyanesh Kumar, then I appeal to the President to sack the CEC,” Raut said.
Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke called Kumar an “enemy of India” in a post on X, and accused the CEC of “scripting” elections instead of conducting them.
Addressing a news conference, senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “There is no doubt remaining that Gyanesh Kumar has no right to remain in office and must resign.”
“Impeach CEC to save democracy,” Congress leader Pawan Khera said in a post on X.
TMC leader Derek O’Brien called for the revival of a five-month-old motion seeking Kumar’s removal. The motion submitted to the Rajya Sabha chairman in April was backed by more than 70 MPs, according to O’Brien, exceeding the 50-member threshold required to initiate the removal process.
“It’s time to bring out the Rajya Sabha notice to impeach the CEC and save democracy,” O’Brien said.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee also demanded Kumar’s removal and a court-monitored investigation into the poll panel’s functioning. “The CEC must be removed immediately and a court-monitored investigation ordered,” he said.
He alleged that “disenfranchising lakhs of voters to allegedly benefit one political party strikes at the very foundation of our democracy.”
Meanwhile, the Election Commission tried to cover up its misdeeds rejecting reports of a rift. It said that all decisions, including those concerning SIR, were taken unanimously with the approval of both Election Commissioners and the CEC.
It has maintained that the revision, being held after 22 years, will cleanse the voters’ list of ineligible people, duplicate entries and include those eligible as per law to vote.
Earlier, the CJP leader Das said: “The young generation today is facing a huge unemployment crisis, paper leaks, children are facing crumbling school infrastructures, babies are facing adulterated cough syrups, all are facing air pollution in cities, and so much more. For every such crisis, people’s only hope is that a better government comes in and tackles their issues,” Das wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“But if this very tool for bettering their lives, their RIGHT TO VOTE and FREE & FAIR ELECTION is stolen from them, then where will people go?”
Veteran Journalist and Political Commentator
