“You didn’t want the Chief Justice in this committee, that’s why you passed a law to remove him,” Congress MP KC Venugopal said in the Lok Sabha on December 10, 2025. Photo: Sansad TV via ANI
Opposition benches and the finance ministry embarked on a special intensive review (SIR) of the electoral rolls as the Lok Sabha deliberated on electoral reforms on Wednesday (December 10, 2025).
In a no-holds-barred attack against the government, Congress MP KC Venugopal asked why the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was removed from the process of selecting the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Election Commissioners (EC).
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Referring to the judgment of the Supreme Court bench headed by now-retired Justice KM Joseph, which said the selection committee should include the Prime Minister, the CJI and the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha until a law is made, Mr. Venugopal said the apex court’s intention was to ensure free and fair elections.
“You didn’t want the chief justice on that committee, that’s why you enacted the law to remove him,” he said. “The idea of an impartial electoral umpire has now been superseded and has now openly collapsed under political pressure and become partisan. The right to vote is not at the mercy of government, it is a fundamental principle of democracy,” he added.
Suspected voter erasure
The Congress leader also questioned the political neutrality of the Election Commission of India (ECI), citing the poll panel’s failure to stop cash transfers by the Bihar government in the middle of elections. “Why is the ECI acting as an agent of the ruling party?” he asked.
Mr. Venugopal, who opined that voting chori (theft) is an act against the nation, said, “Instead of preventing it, our ECI is enabling it.”
He also pointed to The Hindu’s analysis of data on the deletion of voters from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar under the SIR exercise, which showed an “unusually high proportion” of deaths among younger voters, mostly under 50 years of age, in 80 assembly segments.
I speak for the BLOs
The Congress MP, who informed the House that he is a petitioner against the SIR process in the Supreme Court, also raised the issue of cabin level officials (BLO) suicides. “Who will respond to the families of BLOs who died by suicide?” he asked.
After him, senior BJP leader and former Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that parliamentary norms required Mr Venugopal not to speak in the House as he was a petitioner in the SIR case. “I would urge the chairman to look into the matter and if he deems it fit to expunge his observations from the record,” Mr Prasad said.
“No Return to Ballots”
Hitting out at Mr. Venugopal on the appointment issue, the BJP leader said that if an elected government headed by the Prime Minister can be trusted with the nuclear button, “why can’t it be the same in choosing a good CEC or EC”.
Mr Prasad also strongly argued against opposition demands for a return to ballot papers in elections, saying it would mean “a return to the days of booth-conquering”. Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav, demanded a return to ballot papers and a halt to the SIR exercise.
BJP MP Kangana Ranaut added that the Prime Minister did not hack Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) but the hearts of voters.
All India Muslim Majlis-e-ittehadul MP Asaduddin Owaisi said the sir exercise was nothing but a “backdoor of the nrc”, referring to the National Register of Citizens. It was a “malafidic exercise” of power to selectively disenfranchise people on the basis of religion, he said.
Published – 10 Dec 2025 23:07 IST
