Opposition demands CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s removal after Election Commissioners’ dissent report
Opposition parties on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) sought the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar after an Indian Express exposé claimed that two of the three election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had formally registered objections at least 14 times in the past 10 months. Both ECs said that major decisions were taken on behalf of the entire electoral commission without their knowledge, calling some of them “unauthorized and illegal”.
Declaring “vote chori” a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on the Constitution, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said “the BJP, the RSS and the EC, who organized it, have committed an act of treason. Justice will be served.” He will hold a press conference on the matter on Thursday.
Opposition parties asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognizance of the report and Congress leader KC Venugopal demanded an impartial probe monitored by the Supreme Court to “uncover the rot that has destroyed the ECI’s credibility”. The CEC has no right to remain in office after the revelation, he said.
The ECI responded on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) that all its actions were in accordance with the law and Commission guidelines. Highlighting specific internal notes or observations spread over a 10-month period while overlooking a much larger set of approvals, decisions, guidelines and initiatives provides only “one part of the picture,” he said.
Centralization of polls
According to an Indian Express report, the two election commissioners highlighted several key issues headed the centralization of the electoral roll database. In May, Mr Joshi reportedly proposed an audit to confirm that “nobody other than the relevant statutory bodies has any authority to make any changes to the database”.
In August, Mr. Sandhu noted that state-level election officials reported that they did not have “proper and complete access” to the ERONet portal, the digital system through which voter lists are maintained. He further said that IT Commission Director General Seema Khanna “has no statutory authority to curtail the proper and complete access and freedom to operate as given by law to statutory bodies”.
The Express report said that when a new officer was put in charge of the ECI’s Delhi division and issued a work allocation order that threatened to further concentrate those powers, the two ECs separately wrote to the country’s top bureaucrat, Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan.
Amendment of Form 6 “Unauthorized and Illegal”.
Both ECs also indicated that Form 6 – which new voters must complete to register – has been changed to ask whether the applicant or their parents or grandparents “existed” on the electoral roll at the time of the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Mr Joshi warned back in May that such a statutory form could not be changed without amending the 1960 voter registration rules, and Mr Sandhu agreed, calling the change “unwarranted and illegal” in August and demanding its immediate removal.
Mr. Sandhu also asked who empowered the West Bengal Commission to file appeals against voters who had already been included in the rolls by the judicial tribunals, while 38 thousand appeals were still pending.
They also flagged the case of Goa, where 97 voters who had been dismissed as eligible by the local voter registration officers after a hearing ordered by the Supreme Court were omitted from the final list because the centrally managed software had no mechanism to record the ERO’s decision, despite the director general’s office writing to the ECI eight times seeking a refund.
There is no doubt that it remains. Mr. Gyanesh Kumar has no right to remain in office.
How the hell can one man, acting on his master’s orders, strike out names on a whim? How can he sideline fellow constitutional officers to only take blatantly illegal actions that put our democracy in… pic.twitter.com/W5ej7C7TZW
— KC Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) September 23, 2026
According to the 2023 law governing the European Citizens’ Initiative, all decisions should be taken unanimously as far as possible. Where the CEC and commissioners disagree, the majority should prevail, the law says.
If the apparent facts are as he reported them @IndianExpress are correct, then this seems to suggest that an ‘invisible hand’ is at work @ECISVEEP .
If the rules were allegedly not followed and decisions were made that were not unanimous or by majority, then all decisions… https://t.co/OZzGFNMLZypic.twitter.com/ub9ghVvHiJ
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) September 23, 2026
“The Chief Architect of the Chori Vote”
Congress leader Mr. Venugopal called for the removal of the CEC. “The right to vote is a basic constitutional right given to every citizen, the cornerstone of our democracy. If it is to be taken away, due process must be followed with the utmost honesty,” he said in a post on X. “Today, as we stare at millions of genuine voters who have been disqualified and a similar number of fake voters added to the rolls, it is clear that it was the nation of Shiite Archief with Vomarte Gyianesh who carried out the entire process.” the Modi top brass pulling the strings,” he added.
This is no longer an electoral commission. It is a one man autocracy headed by CEC Gyanesh Kumar!!
The two election commissioners formally protested 14 times in 10 months. They termed the addition of new voters and mass deletion as “unauthorized and illegal”. Your recorded objections to… pic.twitter.com/NVZ6KRw8LS
— John Brittas (@JohnBrittas) September 23, 2026
“We demand the immediate removal of Gyanesh Kumar and an impartial inquiry monitored by the Supreme Court to expose the rot that has destroyed the credibility of the ECI. If Gyanesh Kumar remains in office, the people of India will come forward and ensure that our democracy is not destroyed by a mere bureaucrat,” he said.
The opposition has already submitted two motions in parliament to recall the ÚVK. On March 12, 193 MPs of the INDIA bloc signed the first such motion, which was rejected by both Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan. On 24 April, 73 opposition MPs from the Rajya Sabha submitted a fresh 13-page notice leveling nine specific allegations against the CEC.
Published – 23 Sep 2026 11:39 IST