Congress seeks CEC’s resignation over SIR, holds Modi and Shah accountable

• Congress demanded chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s immediate resignation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls

• Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah would be held accountable for what he called their “diabolical designs”

• The Election Commission said differing views were part of normal deliberations and that its orders followed statutory procedures

The Congress on Thursday renewed its demand for chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s immediate resignation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The party alleged that young voters were being targeted for exclusion and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah would be held accountable.

Ramesh said Electoral Registration Officers in Goa had confirmed that the voters were valid, but their requests were ignored. He alleged that restricting the officers’ access to ECINet undermined their statutory authority over electoral rolls. He also claimed that changes to Form 6 had made it harder for new voters to register. “Gen Z is being targeted for exclusion,” he said.

Citing The Indian Express, Ramesh claimed that the latest phase of the SIR had resulted in 54 per cent of voters in Delhi and nearly 12 crore voters across states being either deleted or flagged. He alleged that the election process had been compromised and called for Kumar to resign immediately. “The PM and the HM will thereafter be held accountable for their diabolical designs,” he said.

His comments followed an The Indian Express report that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions they said were issued without their knowledge. According to the report, their concerns covered changes to Form 6, additions and deletions from voter lists, and centralised control over the electoral roll database.

The Election Commission said on Wednesday that differing views and observations were a normal part of deliberations within any institution. It maintained that all its orders had full legal sanction and followed established statutory procedures, adding that every Commission officer was authorised to suggest improvements to the electoral system.

With PTI inputs