- Opposition leaders demand CEC Gyanesh Kumar's removal, arrest, and re-elections.
- Reports reveal EC neglected differing views on controversial SIR steps.
- BJP defends SIR process, citing election results and TMC wins.
The Opposition has come down heavily on the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the BJP over reports that the poll body neglected the differing views of two Election Commissioners on the SIR steps. Leaders across the Opposition parties have made varied demands, including the removal of Kumar, the holding of no future elections under his watch, and even his arrest.
Lok Sabha LoP and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reacted to the reports, reiterating his long-held stance of 'vote chori' (vote theft). He called it a "crime against the Indian people".
He also issued a video message, warning the poll body that they would not be spared when the time comes. "I am clearly telling the Election Commission and election officers: What you are doing is wrong. This is treason; it is against the nation. Do not forget this. The time will come! We will catch you! You will not be spared," Gandhi said in the video message.
Akhilesh demands 'no polls' under Gyanesh Kumar
Akhilesh Yadav, another prominent Opposition leader and Samajwadi Party chief, demanded that no future election should be held with Gyanesh Kumar as CEC as he is gearing up for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in the coming months.
"Fourteen times in 10 months, senior officers of EC have written notes about wrongdoings. This is a danger to our constitution and democracy,” Yadav said at a press conference.
Yadav alleged that the Samajwadi Party had complained about the deletion of voters' names but no action was taken by the poll body.
"We demand that any future elections should not be held under Gyanesh Kumar," Yadav said.
Arrest, repoll calls by Kejriwal
AAP chief convenor Arvind Kejriwal went a step further, demanding Kumar's arrest, prosecution and a re-election in Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
He also described Kumar as the 'mastermind' behind electoral manipulation. Speaking to the media over the issue, Kejriwal said, "For several months, meetings of the Election Commission have not been taking place, while Gyanesh Kumar has continued issuing orders on his own. Therefore, the entire SIR process, through which 13 crore names have been deleted across the country, is illegal because the Election Commission has not officially approved it."
"So today, we demand that the entire SIR process be cancelled, that all changes made under SIR be cancelled, and that the voter list from three years ago be restored," Kejriwal added.
Mamata seeks arrest
Former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee also demanded Kumar's arrest, terming the reports a scandalous story. "This is such a scandalous story. We had never seen this in our lives. This Election Commissioner must be arrested. He has no moral authority to continue, and BJP must see that they cannot destroy our Constitution. They cannot demolish democracy...They cannot depute their own EROs in the name of BJP IT Team...What we said earlier has now been exposed," Banerjee said.
Banerjee also demanded a re-election in West Bengal, where she lost to the BJP in May this year.
What did the BJP say?
The BJP has targeted the Opposition over their allegations of collusion between it and the EC, arguing that deletions didn't help the party to win seats.
Citing the example from West Bengal, BJP MP and spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “The edifice is that because of the deletion of voters from the voter list, the BJP won in Bengal. The highest number of voters were deleted in 20 Assembly seats, of which the TMC won 13, and the BJP won six. If we won through ‘vote chori’, then how did we lose more than half of the seats?"
He cited Murshidabad, where a TMC candidate won, and Congress ended second in the race. The BJP was nowhere in the contest.
What's the row and what did the EC say?
The row erupted after a report by The Indian Express revealed that two of the Election Commissioners had objected to several SIR processes, including in Bengal.
The report added that 14 letters were written by ECs Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi in 10 months to object to key SIR decisions being taken without their knowledge.
Lack of transparency, addition of new voters and deletion of names during the SIR were among the key issues allegedly raised by the ECs.
Another significant concern raised by them was on the integrity of the voter software, for which they even consulted the Cabinet Secretary.
While reacting to the report, the Election Commission did not reject it but labelled it 'one part of the story'. The poll body also alleged a 'systematic' ignorance of "much larger body of decisions and approvals" taken in the past year.
"Highlighting certain specific internal notes/observations spread over the period of 10 months while overlooking the much larger body of approvals, decisions, instructions and initiatives gives only one part of the picture," it said.
"In recent months, the Commission has taken numerous decisions, issued instructions, introduced around 40 new initiatives and undertaken many electoral reforms, including the conduct of Electoral roll revision (including SIR) across the country. All these decisions are an outcome of the unanimous decisions of the full Commission in the past one year," the EC added.