The Election Commission of India (ECI) has postponed Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s upcoming programmes in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut and Varanasi, days after a report alleged internal dissent
within the poll body.
The Indian Express reported on September 23 said two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi
, had raised 14 objections in 10 months over the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in several states.Gyanesh Kumar was set to address a regional conference on Election Literacy Clubs (ELCs) and ECINET in Meerut on Thursday. He was also supposed to interact with the youth at a programme in Varanasi on September 28.
However, the Election Commission has postponed the programmes, attributing the change to various factors, such as venue availability, schedules of senior authorities and natural conditions.
“Adjustments in dates of events are an ongoing process which is necessitated by various factors such as availability of venues, schedules of higher authorities, natural factors, etc. There have been many occasions when the ELC conferences have been postponed/dates changed earlier, such as in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Uttarakhand. Moreover, the decision to postpone these two particular conferences was taken on September 21,” an EC official told The Indian Express.
As per the report, the programmes have been postponed indefinitely. CEC Kumar was to address ELCs at a gathering of nearly 1,500 people, including students, teachers, and other representatives from educational institutions.
Gyanesh Kumar Under Fire
The Indian Express report claiming that the two Election Commissioners had formally objected for months to decisions pushed by the poll body chief has sparked a political controversy, with Opposition parties demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
The reported disagreements included issues related to the SIR, electoral-roll changes, deletion and restoration of voter names and access to the Election Commission’s voter-data software. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) have led the charge against Kumar, accusing him of compromising the integrity of Indian elections.
The CJP has announced a nationwide protest on October 2 if Gyanesh Kumar does not resign within 48 hours. The organisation also called for an independent inquiry into the functioning of the Election Commission and demanded that the SIR exercise be frozen.
