Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is facing mounting political pressure to resign amid an escalating controversy over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, allegations of large-scale voter deletions and reported disagreements within the poll panel over voter-registration procedures and electoral software.
Opposition parties and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have intensified their campaign against Kumar, accusing the Election Commission of failing to adequately protect voters’ rights during the revision exercise. Demonstrations and political rallies have been held in Mumbai and Delhi, with protesters demanding Kumar’s resignation and greater transparency in the management of electoral rolls.
At the centre of the controversy is the scale of deletions recorded during the SIR exercise. More than 13 crore names have reportedly been removed from draft electoral rolls across 30 states and Union Territories. The figure, however, represents names excluded from draft rolls and should not by itself be interpreted as proof that all those voters were unlawfully disenfranchised.
The Election Commission has defended the revision process and rejected allegations that electoral rolls were manipulated for political purposes. The poll body has maintained that the exercise is intended to identify eligible voters, remove ineligible or duplicate entries and improve the accuracy of electoral rolls.
The controversy intensified following reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised formal objections on multiple occasions concerning aspects of voter registration, deletion procedures, appeals and electoral-roll software. According to reports, the objections were recorded during discussions over a period of several months.
The Election Commission has disputed suggestions that these disagreements demonstrate a breakdown in the functioning of the institution. It has said that the matters were part of the internal decision-making process and that decisions, including those relating to SIR, were ultimately taken unanimously.
Questions have also been raised over the technology used to maintain and modify electoral rolls. The Commission has initiated a review of its voter-roll software, including examination of whether the system complies with applicable legal and procedural requirements.
The political opposition, meanwhile, has linked the voter-roll controversy to broader concerns about electoral transparency and accountability. Congress and other opposition groups have demanded greater disclosure of the methodology used for deletions and restoration of names, while calling for stronger safeguards for voters who may have been inadvertently excluded.
The CJP has separately made Kumar’s resignation a central demand of its campaign, arguing that the scale of the controversy warrants institutional accountability.
The government and Election Commission have rejected allegations of deliberate manipulation, maintaining that the claims are unfounded. The dispute has also entered the judicial arena, with the Supreme Court examining petitions challenging aspects of the Election Commission’s functioning and the SIR process.
A key issue now is whether voters whose names have been excluded from draft rolls can effectively verify their status and obtain restoration where they remain eligible. The Election Commission has announced a special campaign across 20 states and Union Territories to assist eligible citizens whose names are missing from electoral rolls, including through the ordinary voter-registration process.
The controversy therefore presents two competing narratives. Opposition parties and critics describe the SIR exercise as evidence of potentially serious electoral exclusion requiring institutional accountability. The Election Commission and government maintain that the revision is a legitimate exercise to improve the accuracy of electoral rolls and deny politically motivated manipulation.
With legal scrutiny continuing and political protests gathering momentum, the dispute over SIR has evolved into a wider debate over the independence, transparency and accountability of India’s election machinery.
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Mohd Hassan has extensive experience in news gathering, editing, and writing for the newswire industry, Contact – Info@impactnews-wire.com
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