The report has given Opposition parties a new ammunition to attack Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. New Delhi: Two election commissioners objected at least 14 times to decisions taken during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
“The BJP government is playing a game with this SIR. So, they want to remove the Muslims from this country. That is their motive. AAP Delhi President Saurabh Bharadwaj called for Opposition parties to act together against the CEC. “All Opposition parties should join hands and fix this CEC first.
Because as per law, people have registered as voters and living here for quite a long time, and they have to be allowed to live, they want to make it a Hindu country, which is impossible,.
The government cannot, by way of SIR, remove their names from voters lists,” he said. He also referred to notices sent to former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, former Union Home Minister L K Advani and others, and said the EC and government should address the issue. Everything else is secondary,” he said in a post on X.
The objections dealt with new voter registrations, deletion and restoration of names, appeals in SIR cases and the handling of electoral-roll data. The Election Commission (EC) is a three-member constitutional body headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with Sandhu and Joshi serving as the two other election commissioners. The ECI’s official website lists all three as members of the commission. The two commissioners also questioned access to the electoral-roll database and the role of the EC’s IT division. He proposed an audit to establish that only the statutory authorities responsible for electoral rolls had the credentials needed to make changes. Sandhu later raised a similar issue. He questioned the legal authority of the director general of IT to restrict the access available to statutory officers. The issue went beyond internal notes. The EC sources, cited by ANI, have sought to play down the Indian Express report. The report has now led to strong reactions from Opposition parties. DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using the SIR process to target Muslims and alleged that names of eligible voters could be removed through the exercise. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) or Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut made a more direct allegation against the CEC. “Gyanesh Kumar will go to jail! He will have to go! Their masters will flee the country and run away,” he posted on X while referring to the Indian Express report. CPI(M) MP John Brittas also attacked the CEC and questioned the way the EC was functioning. “This is no longer an Election Commission. It is a one-man autocracy under CEC Gyanesh Kumar!! The report comes at a time when the SIR process is facing legal and political scrutiny in several states. The process has also led to disputes over voter deletions, new registrations and appeals. West Bengal has recorded one of the largest disputes. The court has questioned the manner in which such notices were issued during the ongoing SIR.
Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded their objections over the past 10 months to decisions and orders that they said were taken without their knowledge, according to The Indian Express. Four of the 14 objections were recorded on a single day, according to the report. One dispute was over Form 6, which is used by people to register as new voters. Joshi had objected in May to changing the statutory Form 6 through the SIR process. He said the form could not be changed without amedment to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Sandhu agreed with his position on May 19. After the change was reported in July, Sandhu again wrote to officials on August 13. Two Election Commissioners have formally objected 14 times in 10 months,” he posted on X. The electoral roll revision excercise, which began in Bihar in June 2025, has resulted in more than 13 crore names being struck from draft electoral rolls across 30 states and union territories. The commission recently told the Supreme Court that 27.16 lakh voters were deleted during the SIR process and that 22.21 lakh appeals were filed seeking restoration. A total of 38.31 lakh appeals were pending before tribunals, including appeals seeking deletion of names.
In one instance, Sandhu said an action taken by the commission went against the written advice of the two commissioners and described it as “unauthorised and illegal”. He said the “unauthorised/illegal changes in Form-6 on the portal” had to be removed immediately so that eligible first-time voters could register “without any harassment”. Joshi had flagged the “gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database”. He said some state-level officials did not have “proper and complete access” to ERONet, the system used to manage electoral rolls. The two commissioners separately wrote to Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan over changes in work allocation that they said affected oversight of the IT system handling electoral-roll data. All decisions of the Election Commission of India, including SIR, have been unanimous and with the approval of both the election commissioners and the chief election commissioner, according to them. He alleged that the two commissioners had described the addition of new voters and mass deletion of names as “unauthorised and illegal”. He also demanded the removal of the CEC and said Parliament should begin the process. In Delhi, the top court has also sought an explanation from the EC over notices issued to voters on the basis of “logical discrepancies”. The EC has said that SIR-related notices in the national capital do not automatically mean that a voter’s name will be deleted. It has said voters receiving such notices will have an opportunity to respond.
A new section in the form referred to the last SIR and asked applicants whether their own name or the name of a parent or grandparent appeared in the earlier electoral roll.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly attacked the commission over the SIR process and alleged that it has affected voting rights. The Congress has also scheduled a press conference later on Wednesday (September 23), with party MP Abhishek Singhvi expected to address the issue.
