Gyanesh Kumar will soon be forced to resign, says KC Venugopal

Congress leader KC Venugopal, Deepa Dasmunshi and others at the ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ rally organized by the District Congress Committee at Kozhikode Beach on Saturday. | Photo credit: K. Ragesh

Amid growing opposition protests over alleged electoral malpractices, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary KC Venugopal has said that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar will soon be forced to resign.

Inaugurating the ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ (Save the Vote, Save the Nation) rally organized by the Kozhikode District Congress Committee at Kozhikode Beach on Saturday (November 7, 2026), Mr Venugopal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of using the election result for the election process, according to Elections India.

Referring to the Haryana assembly elections, in which the Congress lost by a margin of 0.4 percentage points despite predictions of a party wave, he said a booth-level probe led by Rahul Gandhi had revealed widespread vote-stealing. Similar manipulation allegedly took place in Maharashtra and Karnataka, he alleged.

Serious allegations

Mr. Venugopal made serious allegations against Mr. Kumar, accusing him of corruption during his earlier posts as Ernakulam District Collector and Secretary of the Kerala Public Works Department. He also claimed that Mr. Kumar was entrusted with overseeing the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir by Mr. Shah.

He criticized the 2023 amendment to the Election Commissioners Act, arguing that the Modi government gave them legal immunity even greater than that enjoyed by the President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India. He also accused the government of removing the Chief Justice of India from the selection board and replacing him with a Union minister, despite the Supreme Court judgment that mandated the inclusion of the CJI.

‘13.32 million voters deleted’

Claiming that 13.32 million voters were deleted from electoral rolls across the country, Mr. Venugopal said the exercise threatened not only citizens’ voting rights but also their access to government benefits and entitlements as voter IDs were increasingly linked to welfare measures.

He said the protests in Delhi had unsettled the Prime Minister and the CEC and warned that any attempt to quell the agitation with the help of the police or the armed forces would provoke a strong reaction from the opposition.

The movement was not only about electoral victories or making Mr. Gandhi the Prime Minister in 2029, but the struggle to protect every Indian citizen’s right to vote and democratic freedoms, he added.

Published – 07 Nov 2026 21:52 IST