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Election Commission row: Punjab Cong stages stir in Chandigarh, seeks ouster of Gyanesh Kumar
Warring leads agitation against chief election commissioner, demands halt to SIR in state; Channi, Bajwa skip protest
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The Punjab Congress on Friday staged a protest outside the Election Commission office in Chandigarh, Sector 17, demanding the ouster of chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged electoral irregularities and lack of transparency in the functioning of the poll panel. Police used water cannons on protesters as they attempted to march towards the ECI office.
The protest also brought factionalism within the state Congress back into focus as former chief minister of Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi and Partap Singh Bajwa, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, remained absent from the agitation despite having joined the September 15 protest led by Punjab Congress in-charge Sachin Pilot. The protest was held over the alleged suicide of a Dalit man in Sangrur. The Congress had demanded the resignation of finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema and a time-bound, independent probe into the case.
Addressing the protesters on Friday, state Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring accused the ECI of compromising the electoral process and alleged that its functioning under Kumar had undermined public confidence in elections. He demanded that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Punjab be halted and that the 2027 assembly elections be conducted on the existing voter lists.
Warring also alleged that the registration of first-time voters had been made unnecessarily difficult through requirements under Form 6. He claimed the process could exclude eligible young voters. He further alleged that electoral irregularities had influenced recent elections in Haryana and Maharashtra and described the issue as “vote chori”.
The ECI has rejected opposition allegations of electoral-roll manipulation and defended its revision process. The wider controversy has also seen reports of election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raising objections on several occasions over electoral rolls, voter registration and related processes. The ECI has maintained that decisions of the three-member commission have been unanimous.
Former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa backed the demand for Kumar’s removal and said the controversy had damaged public confidence in electoral institutions. Several senior Congress leaders, MPs and MLAs participated in Friday’s protest.
