Dissent Within Indian Election Commission; Major SIR Lapses

September

2026

Since July 2025, when the Election Commission (EC) of India began the periodic Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list, complaints have emerged about how voter names are being deleted. Until September 2026, over 130M names have been deleted across the country. On 23 Sep, ‘The Indian Express’ published a scathing report on how the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has been functioning. The report said that two of the three Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, formally recorded written dissents and objections against CEC Gyanesh Kumar on at least 14 occasions over 10 months (Nov 2025–Aug 2026). The charges are: unilateral and unauthorized decisions pushed by Kumar without their approval; a statutory voter registration Form No. 6 for first-time voters—mostly the Gen Z demographic—as modified against their written advice; centralization of electoral roll software and digital platforms (ECINet), which the commissioners warned undermined the statutory powers of decentralized Electoral Registration Officers under the Representation of the People Act; and the CEC ignored proposals by the commissioners for an independent audit of software modules by experts to ensure legal compliance. The findings show that Kumar had acted unilaterally and undermined his own team. The report has revived the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the opposition parties’ Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc’s attack on the EC, which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is defending even though the EC is a constitutional body and belongs to no political party. Although the EC has tried to defend itself, its explanation concedes a revert to the original Form No. 6, a promise to audit the ECINet application and software, but does not address control of the software. The INDIA alliance and the Cockroach Janata Party have demanded Kumar’s resignation. Protests demanding CEC’s resignation and a complete overhaul of SIR have started in Delhi and various parts of India. In Panjab, the Indian National Congress, led by state unit chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, staged a protest and marched to the EC office in Chandigarh on 25 Sep demanding Kumar's dismissal and arrest. The police used water cannons and dispersed the protesters (earlier coverage).