Left parties seek removal of CEC, halt to SIR

Members of the CPI(M), SUCI (Communist), and the CPI staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Dharwad on Friday, seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and an immediate halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The parties submitted a memorandum to the President through the Deputy Commissioner, seeking the restoration of the voting rights of those who had allegedly been wrongly excluded from the electoral rolls, and seeking measures to restore public confidence in the Election Commission of India.

The protest followed a media report on September 23 that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had recorded objections on 14 occasions over a 10-month period to decisions concerning voter registration, deletion, and restoration of names and aspects of the SIR exercise.

The Left parties said the reported objections raised questions about the functioning and transparency of the Election Commission. They also alleged that the increasing centralisation of electoral data and restrictions on access by officials at the State and constituency levels could affect the transparency of the electoral roll management process.

The parties referred to a report concerning 97 voters in Goa whose eligibility had reportedly been determined by election officials but whose decisions could not be recorded in the system because of software-related restrictions.

They demanded that Mr. Kumar be removed from office, the SIR process be stopped, and the voting rights of eligible persons wrongly excluded from the rolls be restored.

They also sought measures to ensure the independent functioning of the Election Commission and called for changes to the existing mechanism for appointing Election Commissioners. They proposed a selection process involving the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India.

CPI(M) district secretary Mahesh Pattar, SUCI (Communist) leader Gangadhar Badiger, CPI leader Bashir Mudhol, social activists Rajendra Poddar and Basavaraj Sulibhavi, and other Left party leaders participated in the protest.