Former Home Secretary Urges Opposition to Boycott Polls, Seeks CEC's Resignation

Former Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh has written an open letter accusing Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of violating the law during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and has urged Opposition parties to boycott elections until Mr. Kumar and the two Election Commissioners resign.

Mr. Singh is a retired IAS officer who served as Union Home Secretary between 2019 and 2021 and later as a Union Minister in the BJP-led government. He was also a BJP MP from Ara in Bihar. His letter therefore carries weight as the intervention of a senior former official, even as it comes from someone long associated with the ruling party and who has now turned his criticism on the poll body.

The Special Intensive Revision is a nationwide exercise to update electoral rolls, carried out through house-to-house verification of voters. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has said the exercise is meant to remove entries of deceased, shifted and duplicate voters so that only genuine electors remain on the rolls. The process is conducted under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party and the RJD, have argued that the exercise risks deleting legitimate voters, particularly among poor and minority communities, and have demanded stronger safeguards. On Monday, protests were held in several States demanding Mr. Kumar's resignation.

Mr. Kumar was appointed CEC in February 2025 by a selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Opposition member on that panel, recorded his dissent over the appointment. The Commission currently comprises Mr. Kumar as CEC, with Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi as Election Commissioners.

Responding to the Opposition's criticism, senior BJP leader and Union Minister J.P. Nadda accused the Opposition of harbouring a "toolkit mentality" and of attempting to derail the country's progress. The ruling party has broadly backed the revision as a lawful and routine administrative exercise.

There was no immediate public response from the ECI or from Mr. Kumar to Mr. Singh's letter. The Commission has previously stated that draft rolls are published, that objections and claims are invited within fixed timelines, and that no elector is removed without following due process and giving the person an opportunity to be heard.

Under Article 324 of the Constitution, the superintendence, direction and control of elections vests in the Election Commission. The CEC can be removed from office only in the manner and on the grounds applicable to a judge of the Supreme Court, a safeguard intended to protect the independence of the office.

A boycott of elections by major national parties would be unprecedented in India's electoral history, and no Opposition front has so far announced that it will act on the suggestion. Several parties have instead written to the Commission seeking changes to the revision process, and some have moved the courts. Judges have heard a series of petitions on the exercise, with relief granted on specific grievances rather than a blanket halt in every instance.

The dispute now sits at the intersection of three questions: whether the roll revision is being conducted strictly according to law, whether the appointment process for the CEC and Commissioners commands broad institutional confidence, and how far political parties should go in pressing those concerns. Each side has framed its position as a defence of the Constitution and of the voter. The answers, ultimately, will be tested in courtrooms, in the Commission's own procedures, and at the ballot box.