Rahul Gandhi Demands CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s Resignation, Lauds Election Commissioners for Objecting to SIR Decisions…
Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has intensified criticism, Thursday, of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, who has been embroiled in controversy in the wake of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Gandhi demanded Kumar’s resignation and told him to “turn approver”, while applauding Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi for raising objections to a number of the poll-panel’s decisions. Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected to a number of orders and directions concerning electoral-roll processes on at least 14 occasions on a 10-month stretch, including matters relating to SIR, form-6 changes and deletion/restoration of voters. The objections were recorded in the Election Commission. Gandhi said the two Election Commissioners had “come clean” by recording objections and described their actions as significant. He also alleged that the functioning of the electoral process had been compromised and repeated his broader “vote chori” allegations. Such accusations are political allegations that have been rejected by the BJP and challenged by the Election Commission. The Election Commission has held that written notes, technical inputs and internal scrutiny are part of its normal decision-making process. It has further claimed that decisions of the Commission including those concerning SIR have legal backing and were taken unanimously. The BJP has, in contrast, questioned the basis of the alleged internal differences and have accused Gandhi of making unsubstantiated allegations. The dispute has led to expansion of the political confrontation around the SIR exercise with opposition parties demanding action against Gyanesh Kumar and calling for greater scrutiny over the Election Commission’s functioning. The developments have occurred amid the poll-panel facing a host of political and legal scrutiny over the process of the revision of the electoral-roll.