Opposition Seeks CEC Gyanesh Kumar's Removal Over Election Commission Dissent

Opposition parties on Wednesday demanded that Parliament immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, following a newspaper report that two of the three Election Commissioners recorded formal objections at least 14 times over ten months.

The report said Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected that major decisions were being taken in the name of the full Commission without their knowledge, and described several of them as "unauthorised and illegal." The parties also urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognizance of the matter.

The Election Commission responded that all its decisions, including the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), were unanimous and had the approval of both Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner.

According to the report, the two Commissioners flagged several issues, led by the centralisation of electoral rolls. In May, Mr. Joshi proposed an audit to certify that no one other than the concerned statutory authorities had credentials to alter the voter database. In August, Mr. Sandhu recorded that state-level election officials were reporting they did not have proper and complete access to the ERONet portal, the digital system through which electoral rolls are maintained. He also questioned the authority of the Commission's Director General of IT, Seema Khanna, to restrict the access and operational freedom that law grants statutory authorities.

The two Commissioners said Form 6, which new voters must fill to register, was altered to ask whether the applicant or their parents or grandparents "exist" in the electoral roll of the last SIR. Mr. Joshi had warned in May that such a statutory form could not be changed without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and Mr. Sandhu agreed in August, calling the change "unauthorised and illegal" and demanding its immediate removal.

Mr. Sandhu also questioned who had authorised the Commission in West Bengal to file appeals against voters whom judicial tribunals had already included in the rolls, with 38 lakh appeals pending. The Commissioners flagged the Goa case, where 97 voters found eligible by local Electoral Registration Officers after a Supreme Court-mandated hearing were left off the final roll because the centrally controlled software had no mechanism to record the EROs' decision, despite the Chief Electoral Officer's office writing eight times seeking a rollback option.

Congress MP Manish Tewari said that if rules were not followed and decisions were taken that were not unanimous or by majority, then all decisions of the Election Commission were arbitrary and capricious, if not completely illegal. In a post on X, he said the reported facts suggested an "invisible hand" running the poll body, and that the credibility of the Election Commission needed to be restored.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the situation meant all Election Commissioners were unable to perform their rightful duties. He said that if members of an independent body lack the freedom to carry out just actions, or if their views are not heard, it is a dangerous circumstance for democracy, and urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognizance.

CPI(M)'s John Brittas alleged the Election Commission had become a "one-man autocracy" under CEC Gyanesh Kumar. He said the two Commissioners had branded the addition of new voters and mass deletions "unauthorised and illegal," and had recorded objections to secret deletions, restorations and Form 6 changes that harass young first-time voters. He demanded that Parliament immediately begin the process for the CEC's removal and that the Supreme Court annul the entire SIR process without delay.

Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien of the Trinamool Congress said that five months ago, more than 60 Rajya Sabha MPs, against the 50 needed, had written to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha moving a motion to remove CEC Gyanesh Kumar. He said that after the news break about the two Commissioners' objections, it was time to bring out the motion and impeach the CEC to save democracy.