Wayanad: Calling alleged mass deletion and tampering of voter names in the Election Commission’s SIR exercise a “criminal act against democracy”, Congress general secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday demanded that CEC Gyanesh Kumar be criminally prosecuted and “tried for treason” if wrongdoing is proved.
Addressing reporters in Wayanad, Priyanka said any attempt to meddle with the electoral process struck at the very foundation of India’s democratic system. “Anybody who plays around with the democratic process of our elections is committing treason against this nation,” she said.
Referring to the exclusion of more than 13 crore names from draft electoral rolls during the SIR exercise, she said, “Tampering with voter rolls and deleting 13 crore voters is a criminal act against democracy, the Constitution and the nation.”
‘He Should Be Tried For Treason’
Her comments came amid a widening political storm over the functioning of the Election Commission, triggered by a report in The Indian Express that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on at least 14 occasions over a 10-month period to various decisions and orders concerning the electoral-roll revision process.
Priyanka alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar had been aware of the concerns raised within the poll panel but had failed to act.
“The Election Commissioner has been fully aware that this is happening under his nose. His colleagues have brought it to his attention, but he has ignored it and intentionally allowed an unfair election to take place,” she alleged.
She further said that if any illegal action had been committed, the CEC should not be shielded from criminal proceedings. “He should be criminally prosecuted just like any other criminal, and he should be tried for treason,” Priyanka said.
The Congress leader’s intervention came against the backdrop of the SIR exercise, under which the Election Commission has undertaken a large-scale revision of electoral rolls across states and Union Territories, as reported by The Statesman.
13 Crore Names Left Out
The SIR-driven draft rolls released to date have excluded upwards of 13 crore entries. The Election Commission, however, has insisted that these are provisional, draft-stage omissions rather than final deletions, and that voters whose names are missing can still invoke the claims-and-objections mechanism to seek restoration.
Justifying the revision, the poll body has said every deletion adheres to a fixed protocol: advance notice to voters, verification by Booth Level Officers, release of draft rolls, and a defined window for claims, objections and appellate remedies.
The controversy acquired greater intensity after disclosures that two Election Commissioners had logged multiple objections to key SIR-related decisions, prompting Opposition parties to demand a closer probe into the Commission’s working.