Congress protesters in Kalaburagi demand resignation of India’s election chief
Congress workers in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, protested against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and accused India’s Election Commission of political bias. The allegations, including claims that voter names were being removed through the Special Intensive Revision, were made by party leaders during a demonstration outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
The Kalaburagi district unit of India’s Congress party staged a protest on Monday demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and accusing the Election Commission of India of political bias. The demonstration took place outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office and was led by District Congress Committee president Kiran Deshmukh and legislative council member Thippannappa Kamaknoor. Protesters raised slogans against Kumar and burned an effigy during the action.
Addressing the gathering, Deshmukh and Kamaknoor said the Election Commission was constitutionally required to function independently and impartially. They alleged that Kumar was acting in a partisan manner and said decisions taken under his leadership were damaging the democratic process and benefiting the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress leaders said the commission’s allegiance should be to the Constitution rather than to the Union government.
Protesters alleged that the BJP had taken control of the election process and was using the commission to remove voters from electoral rolls. They specifically claimed that people who did not support the BJP were being removed through the Special Intensive Revision process. The protesters further alleged that the revision was targeting voters from Muslim, Christian, OBC and SC/ST communities.
The source material presents these as allegations by Congress and does not include a response from the Election Commission or the BJP. Several local Congress representatives attended the demonstration, including Kalaburagi Urban Development Authority chairman Mazhar Alam Khan, legislative council member Jagdev Guttedar and district women’s unit president Renuka Singhe. The protest reflects the party’s wider criticism of the election authority, but the report does not state that any of the allegations have been independently established.
It records the demands made at the demonstration and the claims put forward by the participating Congress leaders.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.