SIR row: Congress demands CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation

Congress has demanded Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation after a report said two Election Commissioners had repeatedly objected to SIR-related decisions. The Election Commission, however, said all decisions, including those concerning SIR, were taken unanimously

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with Rahul Gandhi alleging that the BJP, the RSS and the Election Commission, which he accused of organising “vote chori”, had committed an act of treason.

The opposition party’s attack came after The Indian Express reported that questions had repeatedly been raised over issues related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls within the three-member Election Commission (EC) by two of the three Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

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The national rollout of the SIR has been under the supervision of all three commissioners. But Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected, on record, at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions taken and orders issued without their knowledge, according to the report.

“Vote chori is a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on our Constitution,” Gandhi said.

“The BJP, RSS and EC who organised it have committed an act of treason. Justice will be served,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said on X.

Gandhi also shared a video of remarks he had made earlier in which he warned EC officials that what they were indulging in was treason and that they would not be spared.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also lashed out at Kumar over the media report.

“For several years now, the Congress Party and many opposition parties have been raising questions about the fairness of elections in the country. We continuously found the role of the Election Commission suspicious. When we raised questions, they were dismissed as a joke. The doors of the Commission were shut,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.

Today, the same issue has come to light from within the Election Commission itself, he said, adding that two of the three Election Commissioners had objected in writing 14 times.

“Misuse of Form 6, misuse of software, tampering with voter lists, decisions without transparency — these are all now in front of the country. Then what did CEC Gyanesh Kumar do about these objections? In the first three phases of SIR, 13.8 crore names have been removed from the draft electoral rolls of 31 states and union territories,” Kharge said.

“The Vote Chori and SIR that Shri @RahulGandhi has continuously exposed before the country are now proving to be correct questions. This is tampering with democracy,” he said.

“On April 24, 2026, 73 opposition Rajya Sabha MPs had submitted a new Notice of Motion to the Secretary General to remove CEC Kumar. The Monsoon Session of Parliament has not yet been prorogued. Will the Hon’ble Rajya Sabha Chairman now decide on that pending Notice?” Kharge said.

Today, the question is not just about “Vote Chori” but about the government’s takeover of India’s democracy and its institutions, he said.

“It is about their independence and impartiality. These documents emerging from within the Election Commission raise extremely serious questions about the role of the Modi government and the BJP-RSS,” Kharge said.

The country will demand answers from Prime Minister Modi, he said.

Those plotting to snatch democracy from the people of India will be given a fitting reply, Kharge asserted.

Addressing a press conference, senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the issue was serious and cited what he called an example of “double bulldozer sarkar”.

An external bulldozer works against institutions and the internal bulldozer is the CEC, who has bulldozed his own organisation and colleagues and has “hijacked” the EC, Singhvi said, criticising Kumar.

He said the BJP had set up an office dedicated to the “murder of democracy” and that on one side, they had positioned the CEC and on the other, the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“The Court provided a clear answer stating that all Election Commissioners are equal. The CEC is not superior to the other ECs; the CEC is merely ‘first among equals’. The revelations made today indicate that the CEC did not merely mislead the nation or undermine its constitutional values — actions he has been engaging in for quite some time — but also misled his own colleagues,” he said.

There is no doubt remaining that Gyanesh Kumar has no right to remain in office and must resign, Singhvi said.

Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation K C Venugopal also asserted that Kumar had no right to remain in office.

“How the hell can one man, acting on His Master’s orders, strike off names at whim? How can he sideline fellow Constitutional officers to only take blatantly illegal steps that put our democracy in danger?” Venugopal said on X.

The right to vote is an essential constitutional power given to every citizen and the fundamental bedrock of democracy. If it is to be taken away, due process must be followed with utmost probity, he said.

“Today, when we are staring at crores of genuine voters being excluded and a similar number of bogus voters being added to the rolls, it is clear that Gyanesh Kumar was the Chief Architect of the nationwide Vote Chori exercise, with the Modi top brass pulling the strings,” Venugopal charged.

“We demand Gyanesh Kumar’s immediate removal and a Supreme Court-monitored impartial investigation to expose the rot that has destroyed the ECI’s credibility,” he said.

“If Gyanesh Kumar remains in office, the people of India will come forward and make sure that our democracy is not destroyed by a mere bureaucrat,” he said.

However, Election Commission sources said on Wednesday that all decisions taken by the poll panel, including those related to the ongoing SIR exercise, had been approved unanimously by all three election commissioners.