Opposition Parties Demand Resignation of Election Chief Gyanesh Kumar

Opposition parties and Left groups are intensifying nationwide protests against Gyanesh Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner of India, alleging the weaponization of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process to delete 13 crore voters to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) claims Kumar acted unilaterally to remove these names, while Left parties in Tamil Nadu have demanded his parliamentary impeachment.

In Mumbai, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have organized a protest march for October 4, which will be joined by the Congress party and the Nationalist Congress Party–Sharadchandra Pawar. During a strategy session, the INDIA bloc also revived demands to replace electronic voting machines with paper ballots. Separately, Abhijeet Dipke of the Cockroach Janta Party announced a series of protests starting October 2 at Shivaji Park, with plans to expand demonstrations to several states and eventually to Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

The turmoil follows reports that sitting Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised formal objections to Kumar's decisions on at least 14 occasions over 10 months. Former Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Quraishi stated the current leadership is damaging the institution's reputation. The Election Commission of India has denied these allegations, maintaining that all decisions were made unanimously.