Opposition Parties Attack Election Commission Over Reported Internal Dissent
Congress and Trinamool leaders accused the Election Commission of lacking independence after a report claimed two commissioners objected to several decisions.
A fresh confrontation has erupted between the Opposition and the Election Commission of India after a report claimed that two election commissioners recorded formal objections to a series of decisions taken without their knowledge.
The Congress alleged that the poll body may no longer be functioning as an independent institution, and its leaders led a coordinated attack on the commission. Rahul Gandhi described the alleged manipulation of votes as a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on the Constitution, accusing the BJP, the RSS and the Election Commission of acting in concert. He also shared a short video in which he warned the commission and its officers that they would not escape accountability.
Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari said that if the reported facts are accurate, they suggest an "invisible hand" is running the Election Commission. He argued that decisions taken without following rules, or without unanimity or majority backing, would be arbitrary and possibly illegal. Tewari added that the matter warranted serious consideration of impeachment proceedings, and questioned how the credibility of the commission could ever be restored.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien also referred to the impeachment route, recalling that more than 60 Rajya Sabha MPs had already asked the Chairman to move a motion for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. He said the latest developments made it imperative to bring that motion forward, framing it as a step to protect democracy.
The controversy centres on the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls, an exercise the Opposition has long alleged is designed to exclude voters favourable to the ruling party. The national rollout of the exercise is being supervised by the three top officers of the commission: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
According to the report, Sandhu and Joshi placed their objections on record at least 14 times over the past ten months, including four occasions in a single day, over decisions and orders issued without their knowledge. The commission, however, has rejected the suggestion of internal dissent, maintaining that no election commissioner expressed disagreement and that the observations made were duly examined by the poll body.