Karnataka CM Demands CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s Removal and Arrest Over SIR Row

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has demanded the immediate removal and arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls and raising concerns over the deletion of voters.

Addressing a Congress protest at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on Saturday, September 26, Shivakumar also called for the Election Commission of India to be dissolved and urged President Droupadi Murmu to intervene in the matter. He demanded fresh verification of the electoral rolls and the scrapping of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

Shivakumar alleged that the Election Commission had acted in a manner that favoured the BJP and described the electoral roll exercise as an attempt to deprive genuine voters of their democratic rights. He demanded that elections allegedly affected by irregularities be reviewed and that the voter lists be revised through a transparent process.

The Chief Minister also said the Congress would take the issue to villages across Karnataka. He called for greater scrutiny of the electoral roll revision and said the issue should be discussed at the national level.

The protest was attended by former Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah and Veerappa Moily, KPCC President B.K. Hariprasad and other Congress leaders. Congress leaders demanded accountability from the Election Commission over the ongoing SIR exercise.

KPCC President B.K. Hariprasad alleged that around 1.07 crore names from Karnataka’s earlier electoral roll had not been included in the draft roll under categories such as absent, shifted, dead, duplicate and others. Official draft roll data shows that 1,07,96,415 electors were placed under the ASDDO category, while the draft roll contained 4.46 crore electors compared with 5.54 crore electors on the roll before the revision.

Hariprasad also alleged that the other two Election Commissioners had raised objections to certain decisions on 14 occasions over a period of 10 months. These claims have also been reported in connection with the wider controversy over the functioning of the Election Commission.

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah demanded the dismissal of Gyanesh Kumar and sought the intervention of President Droupadi Murmu. He said the functioning and autonomy of the Election Commission had come under serious scrutiny and called for action over the concerns raised by the Congress.

The controversy comes amid an ongoing political dispute over the SIR process in Karnataka. The Election Commission has maintained that differences of opinion within the institution are part of its internal deliberations and that recent decisions were taken unanimously.

The Congress has said it will continue its campaign against what it describes as irregularities in the electoral roll revision, while the Election Commission’s position remains that the SIR process is part of the electoral roll revision framework.