Mumbai, Sept 24 Amid reports of differences within the EC over SIR, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday demanded Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, and said both the CEC and the ‘masterminds’ pulling the strings from behind must be investigated.
Slamming the Election Commission, Thackeray said in a post on X that under the current dispensation, “autonomy” is defined as “subservience to the Bharatiya Janata Party”.
He alleged that a compromised Election Commission and EVMs are the two weapons wielded by the BJP government, and urged all opposition parties to launch a mass movement to demand that elections be conducted using ballot papers instead of EVMs.
Reacting to a report in The Indian Express that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had repeatedly objected to decisions and orders issued without their knowledge during the SIR, including changes to Form 6 and centralisation of control over the electoral roll database, he said the objections raised by them are serious.
It is impossible for the CEC Gyanesh Kumar to dismiss them, he said.
“One thing becomes crystal clear: the concept of an autonomous Election Commission is now merely a theoretical notion found in books. Under the current dispensation, ‘autonomy’ is defined as ‘subservience to the Bharatiya Janata Party’. If that condition is met, the body is considered autonomous, otherwise it is not,” Thackeray said in the post.
“There is no alternative now for Gyanesh Kumar but to resign; furthermore, both he and the ‘masterminds’ pulling the strings from behind the scenes must be investigated. Of course, the question remains as to who would conduct such an inquiry,” the MNS chief said.
Since Kumar became CEC in February 2025, assembly elections have been held in Bihar, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and West Bengal.
“Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, elections for municipal corporations and other local self-government bodies also took place. We have seen the results of all these elections. Regarding the local body elections in Maharashtra, we witnessed, and bore the consequences of, how the State Election Commission constantly looked to Delhi for direction,” Thackeray said.
In short, there was indeed ‘match-fixing’. All parties, including the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, had alleged and which has now been proven by evidence.
He also lauded Sandhu and Joshi for standing firm and registering their objections. It is certain that many other officials, drawing inspiration from them, will now start speaking up.
“The Chief Election Commissioner ought to resign, certainly; but the government that came to power by leveraging such a spineless Election Commission should also step down…Only if the Election Commission becomes truly autonomous, as it ought to be, can the ruling dispensation be brought down to earth; otherwise, this battle will be endless,” Thackeray said in the post.
(PTI News)
