INDIA bloc demands CEC Gyanesh Kumar's removal at Ramlila Maidan rally; BJP calls show a flop

Leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc gathered at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on Sunday to demand the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the withdrawal of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The ruling BJP dismissed the rally as a failure.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi led a march to the venue. He accused the CEC of helping what the opposition calls "vote chori" (vote theft) and said Kumar would end up in jail. He also said the opposition would take legal action.

What the opposition said

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP of winning power at the Centre and in several states through vote theft. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav called the rally the "Haldighati of democracy" and said the BJP would lose Uttar Pradesh in the 2027 Assembly election. Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee said Bengal was a "victim of SIR" and promised to keep up the fight. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah also spoke.

Other speakers claimed that the revision had hit minorities and poorer communities hardest and that the CEC had acted without consulting the other two election commissioners. These claims have not been independently verified.

BJP and Election Commission responses

Speaking in Chandigarh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused the opposition of disrupting Parliament and then taking the dispute to the streets. He said they would spend another five years in opposition. BJP MP Sambit Patra disputed the opposition's claimed turnout of 10 lakh and said thousands of chairs were empty. He also pointed out that Kumar became CEC in 2025, after the 2024 Lok Sabha election, and said anyone who considered that election illegal should go to court. Union Minister Giriraj Singh and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also called the rally a flop.

The Election Commission did not respond publicly to the rally. It has said the SIR is meant to remove dead, shifted, duplicate and untraceable entries, and that eligible voters who are left out can apply through the claims-and-objections process. In a recent affidavit in the Supreme Court, it said the revision was authorised by law, that all three commissioners approved the orders unanimously, and that the statutory voter registration form had not been altered. It called the attacks on the commission "unfortunate".

Case pending in Supreme Court

On October 27, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant gave the petitioners challenging the SIR 10 days to reply to the commission's affidavit. Across three phases, the commission has flagged about 13.39 crore entries under these categories. Flagged entries are not the same as names finally removed from the rolls. The dispute matters for every voter: anyone unsure of their status can check their name on the electoral roll and file a claim before the deadline in their state.