Gyanesh must go: Congress protest in New Delhi on November 1

A protest will be organised by the Congress party in New Delhi on November 1 to demand withdrawal of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, former Union Minister J.D. Seelam announced. Mr. Seelam is an observer for the ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ campaign.

Addressing a press conference at the district Congress office in Kalaburagi on October 26, Mr. Seelam alleged that eligible voters’ names were being deleted from electoral rolls and voters shifted from one polling booth to another during the revision process. He said concerns had been raised in several parts of the country over the deletion of names, but the authorities had failed to provide satisfactory explanations.

Questioning the autonomy and impartiality of the Election Commission of India (ECI), he criticised the changes to the process of appointing election commissioners, and alleged that the existing legal framework made it difficult to initiate action against them for wrongdoing.

The Congress party had conducted a ‘Save Democracy’ campaign from October 2 to 8 and was extending its agitation demanding Mr. Kumar’s resignation to villages across the country, he said.

Mr. Seelam called for the use of ballot papers in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, pointing out that they continue to be used in local body elections. The move would help ensure transparency in the electoral process, he said.

AICC secretary Gopinath Palaniappan alleged that Mr. Kumar and other ECI officials were working in favour of the BJP. He accused the authorities of facilitating the deletion of names of voters and shifting them between polling booths under the SIR exercise.

Mr. Palaniappan also alleged a lack of transparency in the handling of voter data. He claimed that district-level authorities were not being allowed to scrutinise forms filled out by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and alleged that political influence was being used to remove names from electoral rolls. He urged the ECI to respond to the allegations.

Referring to elections conducted using ballot papers in Rajasthan, Mr. Palaniappan challenged the BJP to support the system across the country, saying its electoral performance under such a system would then become evident.

KPCC working president and MLC Vasanth Kumar, District Congress Committee president Dr. Kiran Deshmukh, and MLAs Allamprabhu Patil and M.Y. Patil; MLCs Thippannappa Kamaknoor and Jagadev Guttedar were present.