Bhopal, Sep 24 The Madhya Pradesh Congress will hit the streets from Friday demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over what the party alleged were wrongdoings in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, state unit chief Jitu Patwari said.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said the Congress will ‘gherao’ (encircle) the office of the state’s chief electoral officer and hold protests outside collectorates.
The Congress will not sit quietly till Kumar resigns and a case of treason is registered against him, as the issue concerns every voter’s rights and the credibility of electoral rolls and not just any political party, Patwari asserted.
Asked about US President Donald Trump praising the SIR process, Patwari hit back saying “Trump can take him (Kumar) to the US”.
He went on to allege that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking decisions under Trump’s pressure.
Questioning changes made to Form-6, used for registration of new voters, Patwari said it should be clarified under which procedure and legal provisions it was added.
He also referred to a report in The Indian Express that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections over decisions concerning electoral rolls, including voter registration, name deletion, and access to electoral data.
Patwari also questioned changes in Madhya Pradesh’s electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.
“MP had 5,74,06,143 registered voters before the exercise, while 5,31,31,983 enumeration forms were received and digitised. A total of 42,74,160 names were excluded from the draft electoral roll issued in December 2025,” he said while clarifying that this was not the final number of deletions as claims and objections were subsequently considered.
According to figures cited by Patwari, the final electoral roll published on February 21 this year had 5,39,81,065 voters, with 34,25,078 names removed in the final exercise.
He said around 7.17 lakh applications were received for inclusion of names during the claims and objections process, while around 83,000 objections were filed seeking deletion.
“The ECI must make public details of the 34.25 lakh names deleted from the final roll, along with details of names restored after the claims and objections process,” Patwari said.
He also sought disclosure of the reasons for acceptance or rejection of applications for name restoration and an audit trail showing the roles of Electoral Registration Officers and Booth Level Officers in the digital electoral system.
Questioning the process of appointing election commissioners, the Congress leader claimed changes made during the Modi government’s tenure replaced the Chief Justice of India with the Union home minister in the selection process.
The Congress on Thursday directed its state units to organise protest marches to their respective state election commission offices on September 25, demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s immediate arrest, removal from office, and an independent review of all decisions and electoral roll changes made under him.
The national rollout of the SIR has been under the supervision of all three commissioners. But Sandhu and Joshi have formally objected, on record, at least 14 times over the last 10 months, four times on a single day, to decisions taken and orders issued, they say, without their knowledge, according to the report in The Indian Express.
(PTI News)
