Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday demanded the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, comparing the deletion of voters’ names with “vote-demonetisation”.
Speaking at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in New Delhi, Kharge also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi resign on moral grounds, alleging that he had pressured the CEC. He accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of failing to maintain transparency in the electoral process and laid out five demands concerning electoral rolls, voter appeals, access to data and investigation of discrepancies.
The Congress president’s remarks came ahead of a meeting of Opposition parties on Wednesday, September 30, where a joint strategy on the SIR controversy and the demand for Kumar’s removal is expected to be discussed. Opposition parties have also been considering another removal notice against the CEC in Parliament.
Congress lists five demands over electoral rolls
Kharge called for the publication of full data concerning major changes to electoral rolls. He said voters whose names have been removed must be informed fully and provided with an opportunity to appeal.
He also demanded that political parties receive electoral rolls and relevant data in a simple format and within a defined timeframe. Serious discrepancies, he said, should be independently investigated within a fixed period.
His fifth demand was for wider transparency in election-related data and decisions so that no political party could allege that information was being withheld. Kharge said voters should have confidence that their votes were secure.
The Congress’s demands come amid the SIR exercise, which has resulted in more than 13 crore names being struck from draft electoral rolls across 30 states and Union territories, according to an Indian Express investigation. The figures refer to draft-roll exclusions and do not by themselves establish permanent disenfranchisement, as the revision and appeal processes remain ongoing.
Kharge also criticised changes to Form 6, which is used for new voter registration. He recalled former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18 and alleged that the Modi government was seeking to restrict young voters’ access to the franchise.
Kharge attacks Modi, CEC over ‘vote-demonetisation’
Kharge drew a direct comparison between the SIR-related deletions and the 2016 demonetisation exercise.
“History bears witness that ten years ago, this very Prime Minister devastated India’s economy with the decision of ‘demonetisation’,” Kharge said, according to the Congress account of his speech. He described the current exercise as a conspiracy of “vote-demonetisation” and said the poor, Dalits and other deprived sections depended heavily on their voting rights.
He argued that while people had stood in queues during demonetisation, those affected by voter deletions were being pushed out of the electoral process altogether.
Kharge accused Kumar of functioning as a “puppet” of the ruling dispensation and said the institution responsible for protecting citizens’ voting rights had instead become responsible for taking votes away. He questioned how voters could trust the CEC when, according to him, other members of the Commission had raised objections to decisions taken during the SIR process.
He also praised Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for bringing allegations of “vote chori” to the forefront. Kharge said the Congress’s criticism was intended to strengthen the credibility of constitutional institutions rather than weaken them, arguing that the Election Commission should command the confidence of both the ruling party and the Opposition.
Kharge further referred to allegations concerning duplicate voters, doubtful addresses, multiple voters registered at the same address and entries linked to Form 6 that Rahul Gandhi had raised in connection with constituencies in Haryana and Maharashtra. The Congress president said the Election Commission should have acted on those concerns.
EC row intensifies ahead of Opposition meeting
The Congress’s escalation follows an Indian Express investigation reporting that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected on at least 14 occasions over 10 months to decisions and processes within the poll panel. The reported objections covered issues including voter additions, deletions and restoration, changes to Form 6, access to electoral-roll databases and aspects of the SIR process.
The investigation reported that the two commissioners questioned whether some decisions had been taken without their knowledge or approval and raised concerns over the centralisation of access to electoral-roll databases. It also reported disagreements over software-related issues, including a case in Goa where 97 voters found eligible by Electoral Registration Officers were not restored to the final roll because the software did not allow the necessary reversal.
The Election Commission has maintained that its decisions have full legal sanction and that differences or operational questions among commissioners are part of normal institutional deliberations. In response to the reporting on the Cabinet Secretary, the ECI said the letters from Sandhu and Joshi concerned an officer on deputation and were not related to policy or IT division matters.
The controversy has also reached the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the court agreed to hear next week a petition challenging Kumar’s functioning and seeking to declare the nationwide SIR illegal. The petition argues that election-related powers under Article 324 of the Constitution belong to the Election Commission as a multi-member body rather than to the CEC individually. The court has directed that the matter be listed before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.
The CWC meeting was held a day before the proposed Opposition meeting, which is expected to discuss the SIR exercise, the functioning of the Election Commission and further action seeking Kumar’s removal.
Kharge also invoked the Congress’s history in defending voting rights and said the right to vote was not a concession but the result of sacrifices made over decades. He said the party would oppose any attempt to deprive citizens of that right.
“Democracy and the right to vote are our legacy,” Kharge said, adding that the Congress would not allow what he described as attempts to undermine them.