Congress to protest in Delhi on Nov 1, seeks withdrawal of SIR and CEC resignation

The Congress will hold a protest in New Delhi on November 1 to demand the withdrawal of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, former Union Minister J.D. Seelam said.

Mr. Seelam, an observer for the party’s “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao” campaign, announced the protest at a press conference at the district Congress office in Kalaburagi on October 26.

He alleged that eligible voters’ names were being deleted from electoral rolls and that voters were being shifted from one polling booth to another during the revision process. He said concerns had been raised in several parts of the country over the deletion of names, but the authorities had failed to provide satisfactory explanations. The report did not include a response from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to the allegations.

Mr. Seelam questioned the autonomy and impartiality of the ECI and criticised changes to the process of appointing election commissioners. He alleged that the existing legal framework made it difficult to initiate action against them for wrongdoing.

The Congress, he said, had conducted a “Save Democracy” campaign from October 2 to 8 and was extending its agitation demanding Mr. Kumar’s resignation to villages across the country. The November 1 protest is part of that wider campaign, he added.

He also called for the use of ballot papers in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, pointing out that they continue to be used in local body elections. The move, he said, would help ensure transparency in the electoral process.

AICC secretary Gopinath Palaniappan alleged that Mr. Kumar and other ECI officials were working in favour of the BJP. He accused the authorities of facilitating the deletion of voters’ names and shifting them between polling booths under the SIR exercise.

Mr. Palaniappan also alleged a lack of transparency in the handling of voter data. He claimed that district-level authorities were not being allowed to scrutinise forms filled out by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), and alleged that political influence was being used to remove names from electoral rolls. He urged the ECI to respond to the allegations.

Referring to elections conducted using ballot papers in Rajasthan, Mr. Palaniappan challenged the BJP to support the system across the country, saying its electoral performance under such a system would then become evident.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president and MLC Vasanth Kumar, District Congress Committee president Dr. Kiran Deshmukh, MLAs Allamprabhu Patil and M.Y. Patil, and MLCs Thippannappa Kamaknoor and Jagadev Guttedar were present.

The Congress’s demands centre on the conduct of the electoral roll revision and the independence of the poll body. The ECI is the constitutional authority responsible for conducting elections to Parliament and State legislatures. Party leaders said the credibility of the electoral process depends on voters being able to verify that their names remain on the rolls and that they are assigned to the correct polling stations.

The allegations made at the press conference have not been independently verified in this report. The ECI did not feature in the report with a response to the specific charges raised by the Congress leaders.