Congress claims win on searchable voter rolls, says CEC Gyanesh Kumar 'simply has to go'

The Congress on Sunday claimed credit for the Election Commission’s decision to hand political parties searchable electoral rolls, and used the moment to renew its demand that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the change had come only because of the protests against the commission that have spread across the country over the past fortnight. “This is because the whole nation is on the streets against the Vote Chors,” he wrote on X.

What the commission ordered

In an order of 15 October, the Election Commission said parties would receive rolls in a searchable format for the Special Summary Revision, the routine annual update that is resuming after a two-year gap in 17 states and Union Territories, including those with Assembly elections due early next year. The qualifying date is 1 January 2027 and the final rolls are to be published on 4 January.

Parties will get readable rolls, in hard and soft copy, at both the draft and final stages. Candidates in poll-bound states will get the draft and final rolls, and Electoral Registration Officers will also sell rolls to others before elections. The Special Intensive Revision has already been completed in these 17 states; Assam had a separate special revision for legal reasons.

“Denied for 8 years”

Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi and the Congress had long pressed for searchable rolls. “The demand was repeatedly refused by the ECI which stopped providing searchable voter rolls in 2018,” he wrote, saying the practice was stopped after the party found bogus voters in Madhya Pradesh. He said the demand had been “denied for 8 years to enable Vote Chori”.

“Every time ‘vote chori’ is caught, the Modi government adopts a new tactic,” he wrote, listing the withholding of readable rolls, the addition of fake voters and the SIR.

He accused the CEC of acting on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and said this had cost the commission public trust. “Nothing can save the CEC Gyanesh Kumar,” he wrote, adding that the CEC “simply has to go”. “The ECI itself, along with its IT system, has to be thoroughly revamped.”

His sharpest demand was on the roll revision itself. “The SIR, which has put the Constitutional right to vote for over 13 crore Indians at risk, has to be suspended forthwith,” he wrote.

The Election Commission has not responded to the remarks.

What comes next

Farmers’ groups, trade unions and student bodies plan district-level protests on Friday, 23 October, demanding that the SIR be scrapped and the CEC removed. The Congress holds its own rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on 1 November.