“Vote chori is a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on our Constitution,” Gandhi said. “The BJP, RSS and EC who organised it have committed an act of treason. Justice will be served,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post on X.
Gandhi also shared a video of his earlier remarks in which he had warned EC officials that their actions amounted to treason and that they would not be spared.
His remarks came after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders related to the SIR that they said were taken without their knowledge. The objections reportedly included four instances on a single day.
The national rollout of the SIR has been under the supervision of all three election commissioners.
Also Read: ‘Majority not with Gyanesh Kumar’: Kapil Sibal demands suspension of CEC, halt to SIR process
Abhishek Singhvi and Arvind Kejriwal reacts
Senior advocate and Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi also criticised the Election Commission, alleging that the reported differences showed that the Chief Election Commissioner had misled his colleagues.“BJP has set up an office dedicated to the murder of democracy. On one side, they have positioned the CEC, and on the other, the Ministry of Home Affairs. We are already familiar with an external bulldozer; we have witnessed that bulldozer striking various institutions… There is an internal bulldozer within the Election Commission as well,” Singhvi said.
Also Read: Form 6 changes ‘illegal’, differences within EC ‘very serious’: Former CEC O P Rawat
Referring to the Supreme Court’s position on the structure of the poll panel, he said, “Many years ago, the Supreme Court clarified that the Election Commission is a multi-member body… The Court provided a clear answer stating that all Election Commissioners are equal. The CEC is not superior to the other ECs; the CEC is merely ‘first among equals’.”
“The revelations made today indicate that the CEC did not merely mislead the nation or undermine its constitutional values—actions he has been engaging in for quite some time—but also misled his own colleagues…,” he added.
Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal demanded the immediate arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and cancellation of the SIR process.
“We demand that Gyanesh Kumar should be arrested and a case of treason should be registered against him. Recent elections held in Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra, Bengal, Haryana, MP and Chhattisgarh should be cancelled and held again,” Kejriwal said.
Abhishek Banerjee seeks CEC’s removal
Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee demanded the removal of Gyanesh Kumar and a court-monitored investigation into the functioning of the Election Commission. “The CEC must be removed immediately and a court-monitored investigation ordered,” Banerjee said in a social media post.
He alleged that “disenfranchising lakhs of voters to allegedly benefit one political party strikes at the very foundation of our democracy” and said those responsible must be held accountable.
“After the West Bengal elections, all opposition parties of the INDIA bloc wrote to the CJI and SC judges raising serious concerns,” he said, adding that the allegations “were neither examined nor given the scrutiny they deserved”.
“When grave questions affecting the democratic process are repeatedly raised and yet remain unheard, it inevitably raises questions about institutional impartiality,” Banerjee said.
He also urged the Supreme Court to intervene, saying, “The Supreme Court cannot look away. The buck stops there.”
“Will the CJI-led Bench act?” he added.
Uddhav Thackeray and Priyanka Gandhi also reacts
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray thanked Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi for exposing Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, speaking in Keralam, said that if the CEC knew that elections were being rigged and allowed it to happen, it amounted to “treason”.
