The party’s highest decision-making body adopted resolutions at a meeting in New Delhi, escalating its confrontation with the Election Commission over the SIR and alleged irregularities in voter registration. Congress also demanded the resignations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging that the electoral process had been compromised. The government and the Bharatiya Janata Party have rejected opposition allegations of electoral manipulation.
The CWC said Kumar had forfeited “all moral and institutional authority” to continue as Chief Election Commissioner. Its resolution called for an immediate halt to the SIR, citing what it described as serious concerns over the integrity and transparency of electoral rolls being prepared through the process and questions about its constitutional validity.
Congress further demanded immediate restoration of 13 crore 30 lakh names it says were removed from electoral rolls. The figure is a party claim and does not, by itself, establish that all those deletions involved eligible voters or were improper. Electoral-roll revision normally includes removal of names for reasons including death, relocation, duplication and failure to establish eligibility under prescribed procedures.
The resolution argued that a revision process placing the burden on citizens to prove eligibility, conducted without adequate safeguards and resulting in what Congress called arbitrary mass disenfranchisement, could not be reconciled with constitutional guarantees of equality and universal adult suffrage.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who chaired the meeting, also set out demands for greater transparency in electoral-roll management. He called for full disclosure of additions, deletions and modifications; notification to voters whose names are removed and an opportunity to appeal; timely provision of electoral data to political parties; transparent investigation of disputed changes; and greater openness in Election Commission decision-making.
The dispute has sharpened after accounts of internal differences within the Election Commission over aspects of the SIR. Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi were reported to have recorded objections on multiple occasions concerning procedural decisions, including changes connected with Form 6, which is used for voter enrolment.
The Election Commission has maintained that differences of view and observations are normal in institutional deliberations and that its orders have legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures. It has also said correspondence involving the two commissioners concerned an officer on deputation rather than policy or information-technology matters.
The CWC nevertheless alleged that decision-making had become excessively concentrated and accused the poll body of failing to address opposition concerns adequately. It said Congress would continue challenging the SIR through political mobilisation, Parliament and the courts.
Kharge said the controversy raised questions about the credibility of electoral administration and argued that voters must be told when their names are deleted and given an effective avenue for redress. Congress has sought to link those demands to its broader campaign alleging manipulation of voter lists in several states.
The meeting was attended by senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K. C. Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh. The resolutions followed weeks of opposition pressure over the SIR and the functioning of the Election Commission, with Congress seeking a coordinated response from other opposition parties.
The INDIA opposition grouping was due to meet on Wednesday to discuss a common strategy on the Election Commission and the roll revision. Congress leaders have indicated that parliamentary action, including another effort concerning the CEC’s removal, could form part of those discussions.
