Opposition leaders demand inquiry into Election Commission’s functioning

Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has demanded an inquiry into the functioning of the Election Commission of India and the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Chavan made the demand in a post on X on Sunday. He alleged that Kumar had taken decisions on behalf of the poll body without consulting the other commissioners and said the matter required a detailed investigation.

His comments followed an Indian Express report that Election Commissioners S.S. Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times during the previous 10 months to decisions involving voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The Election Commission said on Saturday that all decisions relating to the revision had received the unanimous approval of all three commissioners.

Chavan said the conflicting accounts meant that either the Chief Election Commissioner or the other two members were not telling the truth. He referred to the commission’s constitutional status under Article 324 and cited the Supreme Court’s 1995 judgment in the T.N. Seshan case, which he said set out the powers and role of election commissioners.

Chavan called for an urgent meeting of INDIA bloc leaders. He proposed that a delegation led by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi meet President Droupadi Murmu to seek Kumar’s removal. He also said the Opposition should move a motion under the constitutional provisions governing removal and suggested that the Supreme Court could, if necessary, take suo motu cognisance and order an inquiry.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut separately accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to protect Kumar and repeated the demand that the CEC leave office. The claims by Chavan and Raut were not accompanied in the source material by a response from the government or Kumar.