The Left parties, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), trade unions, students and youth organisations have decided to step up protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for his “illegal” actions that allegedly led to the deletion of millions of voters from the electoral rolls in several States during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Kumar’s resignation. The exercise to update the electoral rolls is not taking place. The SKM demanded the immediate removal and prosecution of Mr. Kumar. “The unilateral and authoritarian acts by Gyanesh Kumar as the CEC amount to treason.
Talking to reporters here on Saturday, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankara Bhattacharya said his party did a house-to-house survey in certain constituencies in Bihar where mass deletions were reported during the 2025 SIR. In Ziradei, he said that of the nine booths surveyed, 122 of 665 voters whose names were deleted during SIR were still residing in the village, while 15 of 189 voters deleted before the SIR were also found there. “The Form 6 is being edited. It also demanded amendments to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. The SKM said the Act altered the selection committee’s composition by removing the Chief Justice of India and replacing that position with a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister, effectively establishing a 2-to-1 government majority on the selection panel.
He said the party found that a substantial number of voters had been wrongly deleted from the electoral rolls. AISA president Neha, who was also present, said the Delhi Police were not allowing any protests in and around Jantar Mantar, and that force was used to suppress the youth and student protests demanding Mr. She said the SIR process undermined the universal right to vote. It is a deliberate attempt to keep ‘Gen Z’ out of the electoral process,” she said. “The majority of the victims are poor, marginalised and mostly migrant workers who are made to wander here and there to enrol as voters, losing their earnings for no fault of theirs,” CITU general secretary Elamaram Kareem said in a statement. “The provisions of the Labour Codes making identity cards prescribed by the Central Government mandatory for enrolling and availing of social security benefits under the Social Security Code reveal the dangers of the probable prescription of the EPIC card as identity proof in place of the prevailing Aadhaar Card, which shall potentially push all those out of the electoral rolls out of the meagre social security net that exists,” he added. He should be prosecuted as per law in a befitting manner to serve as a lesson against such probable actions by any belligerent bureaucrats in the future,” the SKM said.
