India poll chief Gyanesh Kumar under pressure over alleged manipulation of electoral rolls
“Opposition groups are demanding the resignation of India's election chief Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of widespreadvoter-list manipulationduring the verification of the country's one billion vote…”
The calls come barely a month after US President Donald Trump praised Kumar, a former bureaucrat who took over as India's chief election commissioner in February 2025, for insisting that Indian voters prove their identity with photo ID, unlike in the US.Criticism of Kumar, who has denied all allegations, soared last week when the.
Indian Expressnewspapersaidhis two de facto deputies had raised at least 14 formal objectionsover 10 months to decisions related to voter rolls, registration procedures and the poll body's digital systems. Read:India's election commission orders review of voter-roll changes.
Political analysts estimate that 130 million names have been struck off the voter list since the latest round of revisions began last year. Nearly 650 million people voted in the last national election in 2024.
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The opposition has long claimed that the government is trying to fix voter lists to its advantage and was quick to repeat the allegations following the. Indian Expressreport. Government ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and the poll body have all denied the charges.
CEC Gyanesh Kumar Must Go: He Has No Right to Continue in Office! The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, along with other Opposition parties, has consistently opposed the move to delete crores of voters from the electoral rolls in the name of the Special Intensive Revision (#SIR).…pic.twitter.com/I3zc.
GkEWb4— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin)September 23, 2026Kumar, 62, and the two other election commissioners have not commented, but the Election Commission said: "differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution". Protest threat.
The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party hasthreatenednationwide protests on Friday demanding Kumar's ouster, calling him the "biggest anti-national". The main opposition Congress party has said Kumar should be criminally prosecuted for treason. Gyanesh Kumar is the enemy of India.
More than 12 crore names have reportedly been deleted from electoral rolls. That is roughly 12.4% of the 97 crore registered electorate around the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The gap between the BJP-led NDA and the opposition was just 2%.…pic.twitter.com/t7ZQjSYr.
Id— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke)September 23, 2026Kumar has defended the actions of the poll body and said at a press briefing last year: "For the Election Commission, there is neither an opposition nor a ruling side; everyone is equal. "Kumar was riding high in sections of the Indian media last month when Trump praised him.
But since the. Indian Expressreport, graffiti has appeared near his ancestral home in northern India calling him a traitor. Read More:India's CJP trains guns at polls chief.
Kumar joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1988 after completing his B.Tech in civil engineering from an elite government college in his home state of Uttar Pradesh. He previously worked in the ministries of defence and interior affairs, and retired in January 2024.
He was appointed as an election commissioner two months later, before becoming the chief. Kumar has had a troubled relationship with opposition parties from the very start of his tenure atop the election body. Opposition lawmakers tabled a motion to have him removed earlier this year, but it was rejected by parliament.
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