Pinarayi Vijayan demands removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar

Former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and an immediate halt to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, arguing that recent revelations about internal dissent within the Election Commission of India raise grave questions about the poll body's functioning.

Vijayan made the demand in a post on X that the two other Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, formally objected at least 14 times over the past ten months to decisions and orders issued by Kumar, including those relating to voter registration, deletion of names and the SIR exercise. A petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court challenging SIR-related decisions allegedly taken without the agreement of the two commissioners, and separately seeking a special investigation into the matter.

The controversy has sparked protests across the country. Congress workers demonstrated against the CEC in several cities, with police deploying water cannons in Patna and Chandigarh. Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also called on Kumar to resign and urged a revisit of the SIR exercise. LJP chief Chirag Paswan, while stopping short of endorsing the resignation demand, said the Election Commission must respond to public doubts about the integrity of the electoral process.