Act of treason: Opposition up in arms over report of dissent within Election Commission over SIR

Several Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, reacted sharply to a report claiming that two Election Commissioners had dissented with CEC Gyanesh Kumar over various aspects of the SIR exercise. However, the EC rejected the report, saying all decisions were being made unanimously.

In Short

• 2 Election Commissioners reportedly objected to SIR 14 times
• Rahul Gandhi says EC, BJP committed 'act of treason' through SIR
• SIR process deleted over 13 crore voters across 30 states, UTs since June 2025

The Opposition on Wednesday accused the Election Commission of undermining the electoral process after an Indian Express report claimed that two of the three Election Commissioners had formally objected 14 times to various aspects of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls over the past 10 months. The EC later rejected the report, saying individual views expressed by its members did not constitute decisions of the poll body and that all decisions were taken unanimously.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi stepped up the attack, alleging that the BJP, RSS and the EC had “committed an act of treason”. Sharing a 15-second video of his statement, Gandhi called “vote chori” a “crime against the Indian people” and a “direct attack” on the Constitution.

Other Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Congress MPs Manish Tewari and Jairam Ramesh, AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, also reacted strongly to The Indian Express report, questioning the EC's functioning and demanding action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The Election Commission, however, rejected reports of dissent within the three-member panel over the nationwide SIR, saying individual views expressed by Election Commissioners did not constitute decisions of the poll body. Sources said all decisions, including those relating to SIR, were taken unanimously with the approval of all three Election Commissioners.

WHAT REPORT SAID ON DISSENT WITHIN POLL BODY?

The Indian Express investigation has revealed that the two Election Commissioners – Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi – objected to various aspects like new voter registration, deletion and restoration of voters in the rolls and filing of appeals against orders restoring voters in the SIR process.

The three-member EC is headed by Gyanesh Kumar, who has faced severe criticism from the Opposition over the SIR process.

The SIR exercise to weed out ineligible and dead voters, which began in June last year with Bihar, has led to over 13 crore names being deleted from the draft rolls in 30 states and Union Territories so far. The maximum deletions have been in the Delhi and Maharashtra draft rolls.

The SIR process was the most contested in West Bengal, which went to polls in April this year and saw the BJP securing a historic win in the TMC bastion.

Around 91 lakh voters were deleted from the electoral rolls in Bengal following the SIR exercise. Last week, the ECI told the Supreme Court that 38 lakh appeals were pending before the tribunals. Of them, 22.21 lakh were filed by deleted voters.

Interestingly, the other 16.10 lakh appeals were filed against voters whose names were included by the judicial officers and sought their deletion.

The Express investigation revealed that Sukhbir Sandhu flagged this issue, questioning why the ECI appealed against voters whom judicial officers had included. Sandhu recorded that neither he nor Joshi nor the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal had been informed about the basis or process of filing the appeals.

OPPOSITION SLAMS EC OVER SIR 'DISSENT'

Calling the reported dissent a “very serious” development, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter. He said the repeated disagreements suggested that the Election Commissioners were not able to perform their duties properly.

“If members of an independent body do not have the freedom to act fairly or if their concerns are not heard, it is an extremely dangerous and alarming situation for democracy,” he said.

Congress MP Manish Tewari said the report had dented the credibility of the Election Commission and alleged that an “invisible hand” was running the poll body.

“If rules were not allegedly followed and decisions were taken that were not unanimous or by majority, then all the decisions of ECI are per se arbitrary and capricious if not completely illegal,” Tewari said.

“This is perhaps a fit case for serious consideration of an impeachment proceeding, but more importantly, the fundamental question is as to how the credibility of ECI can ever be resurrected,” he added.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said his party would raise the issue at a media briefing. In a post on X, he said Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi would speak in detail about what he described as “sensational revelations” in The Indian Express report concerning the functioning of the Election Commission.

AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that Gyanesh Kumar's conduct during a meeting with Opposition leaders was inappropriate and claimed that the other two Election Commissioners repeatedly nodded in agreement with him.

“When I met Gyanesh Kumar at ECI, his behaviour was more like an immature BJP booth agent,” Bhardwaj said in a post on X. “For every query, he would snap back at us with illogical justifications. The other two Election Commissioners were constantly nodding their heads.”

He called on Opposition parties to remain focused on the issue, saying, “All Opposition parties should stick to this issue and fix it first. Every other issue is futile if ECI is not put in order.”

Bhardwaj also demanded that Gyanesh Kumar be suspended and legal action be initiated against him.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut alleged that changes made through the ECI's software had resulted in voters being arbitrarily removed from electoral rolls.

He also alleged that changes were made to Form 6 without a gazette notification and claimed that powers relating to the inclusion and deletion of voters' names had been taken away from Electoral Registration Officers and handed to private companies.

“Rahul Gandhi had wrongly said that vote theft is happening in the country. In reality, it's not vote theft, but robberies are taking place on the votes – this robbery is being carried out through a software and at the behest of the government,” Raut said.

Raut alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah was “Accused Number One” in the matter and that Gyanesh Kumar was also among those responsible. He demanded that both be “immediately dismissed”.

- Ends