Congress demands removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over electoral roll dispute

Surjewala alleged that the revision exercise resulted in the removal of 13 crore voters across 19 states, citing Karnataka specifically with 1.08 crore deletions. He further claimed that internal operations have been compromised, asserting that CEC Gyanesh Kumar ignored objections raised by fellow Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. These claims follow reports suggesting the two commissioners raised formal objections regarding electoral-roll procedures at least 14 times over the past 10 months.

The Election Commission has dismissed these characterizations of its internal process, maintaining that disagreements during drafting stages are a standard part of a multi-member constitutional body. The commission insists that all final decisions regarding the revision exercise were reached unanimously and operate within the existing statutory framework.

Beyond the revision process, the Congress party has demanded a comprehensive IT and cyber-forensic audit of the ERO Net and ECI Net systems. Surjewala specifically alleged that Electoral Registration Officers have been denied necessary access to these databases, centralizing power under the CEC and the commission's IT director. The party is now pushing for a special session of Parliament to address these concerns, with the issue expected to feature in the upcoming Congress Working Committee meeting on September 29.