India's opposition parties on Wednesday demanded the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar after a newspaper investigation alleged that major decisions during a nationwide voter-roll revision were taken unlawfully. An Indian Express exposé claimed that the two other members of the three-person Election Commission of India (ECI) — the constitutional body overseeing national elections — formally objected at least 14 times over 10 months, saying key decisions were made in the commission's name without their knowledge, including changes to voter registration forms and the centralisation of the electoral roll database that critics say allowed deletions to bypass local statutory authorities. Congress leader K.C. Venugopal called for Kumar's immediate removal and a Supreme Court-monitored investigation, Rahul Gandhi described the exercise as "an act of treason," and Arvind Kejriwal accused Kumar of "vote-rigging," while the ECI denied any wrongdoing, insisting all decisions were unanimous and that internal dissent notes represent only one part of a much larger body of work.
Mosaic News
India's opposition demands removal of election chief after voter-roll probe[Updated]
Protests erupted across at least a dozen Indian states on Friday, with police deploying tear gas and water cannons against Congress supporters in at least two cities, including Chandigarh, after demonstrators climbed buses and barricades. The so-called "cockroach" youth movement, which claims millions of supporters and previously forced out India's education minister in July, warned it would launch fresh nationwide protests on October 2 if Kumar does not resign by Saturday. Congress has separately alleged that Kumar illegally altered Form 6, the voter registration form, in early July by adding a requirement that applicants prove their parents or grandparents appeared in a prior electoral roll — a change critics say erected an unconstitutional barrier for first-time young voters. Late Friday, the Election Commission directed officers to organise special enrolment camps for young voters, a move Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh characterised as a panicked reversal given the commission's own earlier changes had made such enrolment harder.