Congress Working Committee Demands CEC Resignation and Suspension of Voter Rolls Revision
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) concluded a two-and-a-half-hour meeting in New Delhi by passing a formal resolution demanding the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the meeting centered on allegations of electoral roll manipulation and internal dissent within the Election Commission of India.
According to Indian Kanoon, section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and Rule 25 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 grant ECI statutory power to direct special revisions. According to DigitalKSP, for Election Commission of India, Past intensive revisions required 100% door-to-door verification, covering over 173 million voters in the 1950s and 80 million voters in single-state exercises like Bihar in 2025.
The opposition party's resolution called for the immediate restoration of 13.3 crore voter names allegedly removed during the SIR process. Furthermore, the CWC demanded the resignations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, asserting that electoral anomalies were engineered to benefit the ruling administration.
CWC Resolution and Five Key Demands
Addressing party members, Mallikarjun Kharge outlined five primary demands aimed at restoring transparency to the electoral mechanism. He called for public disclosure of all data concerning modifications in electoral rolls, a formal appeals process for any citizen whose name was deleted, and timely distribution of voter lists in a simplified format to all political parties. Additionally, the Congress president urged an independent, time-bound inquiry into reported anomalies.
Kharge argued that internal divisions within the poll panel substantiated the party's concerns. He noted that fellow election commissioners had characterized certain administrative actions as arbitrary and unreasonable. K.C. Venugopal, addressing a press conference following the session, commended Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for spearheading the Vote Chori campaign over the preceding 18 months.
The party resolution cited reports indicating that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi voiced objections multiple times regarding SIR procedures. Additionally, in a separate context outlined in CaseMine and The Hindu records regarding Supreme Court and Election Commission frameworks, decision-making is established by majority vote.
Escalation of Protests and Legal Challenges
The political confrontation has triggered coordinated demonstrations across multiple states, with party leaders confirming that street protests will persist. In Maharashtra, the local Congress unit petitioned authorities against the misuse of the ECI-Net system, alleging that statutory powers vested in sub-divisional magistrates to determine voter eligibility had been improperly bypassed through centralised digital workflows.
According to Supreme Court Observer, the Supreme Court in Anoop Baranwal (2023) established a tripartite appointment panel including the Chief Justice of India, which Parliament subsequently altered via statutory enactment in late 2023. According to India Today, for Mallikarjun Kharge, Kharge linked the transparency demands to safeguarding voter participation in upcoming 2027 assembly elections across five states, while opposition allies initiated escalated street demonstrations.
Concurrently, legal avenues are being pursued across multiple forums. The Supreme Court scheduled a hearing for the following week on a petition challenging administrative decisions issued by the ECI under Gyanesh Kumar. Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court dismissed a separate state Congress petition that alleged age discrepancies in a ruling party candidate's election affidavit.
Action Plan and Next Procedural Steps
The CWC resolved to take the dispute directly to Parliament and public platforms, pledging sustained agitation until electoral rolls are fully verified and the poll body's independent status is reaffirmed. Demonstrations are scheduled at prominent locations including Jantar Mantar, while party representatives prepare formal parliamentary notices to challenge the execution of the electoral revision process.