Left Parties Protest in Dharwad, Seek CEC's Removal and Halt to Voter Roll Revision

Members of three Left parties staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office in Dharwad on Friday, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and an immediate halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The protesters, from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) and the Communist Party of India, submitted a memorandum addressed to the President through the Deputy Commissioner. Among their demands was the restoration of voting rights for people they say were wrongly excluded from the electoral rolls, along with steps to rebuild public confidence in the Election Commission of India.

The protest followed a media report dated September 23 stating that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had recorded objections on 14 occasions over a 10-month period to decisions relating to voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, and aspects of the SIR exercise.

The Special Intensive Revision is an exercise in which electoral rolls are verified and updated through an intensive process, including house-to-house checks by election officials, before the rolls are finalised.

Left party leaders said the reported objections raised questions about the functioning and transparency of the Election Commission. They also alleged that the increasing centralisation of electoral data, and restrictions on access for officials at the State and constituency levels, could affect the transparency of electoral roll management.

The parties cited a report concerning 97 voters in Goa whose eligibility was reportedly determined by election officials but whose decisions could not be recorded in the system because of software-related restrictions.

On the basis of these concerns, they demanded that Mr. Kumar be removed from office, that the SIR process be stopped, and that the voting rights of eligible persons wrongly excluded from the rolls be restored.

They further sought measures to ensure the independent functioning of the Election Commission and called for changes to the existing mechanism for appointing Election Commissioners. They proposed a selection process involving the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.

Under the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, appointments are recommended by a selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. An earlier arrangement, directed by the Supreme Court in 2023, had included the Chief Justice of India in the selection committee. The proposal put forward by the Left parties in Dharwad reflects that earlier model.

Elections in India are conducted by the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body whose powers are drawn from Article 324 of the Constitution. Electoral rolls are revised periodically, and the Commission has described such revisions as necessary to keep the rolls accurate and free of errors.

CPI(M) district secretary Mahesh Pattar, SUCI (Communist) leader Gangadhar Badiger, CPI leader Bashir Mudhol, social activists Rajendra Poddar and Basavaraj Sulibhavi, and other Left party leaders took part in the protest.

The Election Commission's response to the memorandum was not available at the time of reporting. The claims made at the protest, including those based on the September 23 media report, have not been independently verified by this publication.