New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of presiding over what it termed a “textbook case of mass manipulation and rigging” in the West Bengal Assembly elections, and demanded his removal, while also insisting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah be held responsible.
Party general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh posted on X a screenshot of a media report saying that judges serving on more than a dozen West Bengal tribunals — constituted by the Supreme Court to hear appeals in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, including cases involving roughly 27 lakh voters whose names were deleted — had flagged major irregularities in a digital portal built by the Election Commission’s IT division.
“More skeletons are tumbling out of the Election Omission of India’s closet,” Ramesh wrote, alleging that the Modi–Shah leadership’s strategy was to win the Bengal polls “at any cost” through large-scale manipulation overseen by the CEC.
‘Puppet Must Go, Puppeteers Too’
“The puppet has of course to go but the two puppeteers too have to be held accountable,” Ramesh said, clearly referring to Kumar as the “puppet” and Modi and Shah as the “puppeteers”.
“They stand brutally exposed and now it is only a matter of time for them to meet their reckoning,” he added.
Ramesh said MPs of the INDIA bloc, along with other invited Opposition members, would stage a peaceful march to the Election Commission headquarters (Nirvachan Sadan) to press for Kumar’s resignation.
“Looks like the Parliament complex is already under an unprecedented security siege showing the extreme nervousness of the puppeteer pair,” he remarked, amid heavy barricading and traffic diversions around Parliament and the EC office.
‘Form 6 Changes Not Approved’: SC
The Opposition’s offensive follows a Supreme Court clarification that it had not sanctioned any changes to Form 6 — the application used to enrol eligible voters — during the SIR process.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said: “We will examine all the decisions. If any decision is not in accordance with the law, we will annul it. You know the power of the court.”
The bench further stated: “Any modification to Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let’s be clear. When records are produced, we would like to see who has modified it.”
Congress and other Opposition parties have called for Kumar’s immediate resignation, alleging he acted at the behest of Modi and Shah and “betrayed” the Constitution by unilaterally altering the form for SIR.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the CEC and all those involved in what he described as a “criminal assault on democracy” would be held accountable.
The row has been fuelled by a report in The Indian Express that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections on at least 14 occasions in the past 10 months to decisions and orders, mostly linked to SIR.
In response, the Election Commission said internal differences are part of normal deliberations and maintained that all its orders have full legal validity and follow due statutory process.
