Bengaluru, Sept 25 (PTI) Karnataka Congress president B K Hariprasad on Friday announced a protest at Freedom Park here on September 26 against the Election Commission’s SIR exercise and demanded the resignation and arrest of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
Citing media reports, he alleged that Kumar had taken several decisions unilaterally despite objections from the other two Election Commissioners and claimed that the exercise had resulted in the deletion of voters’ names.
He was referring to an Indian Express investigation which reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge. The objections included changes to statutory voter registration Form 6 and centralised control over the electoral roll database.
“The actions of Gyanesh Kumar that have been revealed by media reports have come as a shock to the citizens of the country. The responsibility of protecting the integrity of democracy rests with the Election Commission. However, the democratic system itself has been undermined for the benefit of one political party and one leader,” Hariprasad said.
Speaking to reporters here, he alleged that the work carried out under Gyanesh Kumar had resulted in the deletion of 63 lakh votes in Bihar, 91 lakh in West Bengal and now 1.07 crore votes in Karnataka.
“We condemn the unilateral decisions taken by the Commission without any regard for the democratic system. According to reports that have appeared in the media over the past two days, there is clear evidence of conduct against democracy and the Constitution,” he added.
Further alleging that Kumar’s actions amounted to an act of “treason”, the Congress leader said the prime minister, the Home minister and the Election Commission, who he alleged had encouraged or supported them, should also be held responsible.
Referring to a decision taken by Parliament in 2023, Hariprasad said it was not possible to file a case or initiate action against Election Commissioners and demanded that “Gyanesh Kumar should immediately resign from the Central Election Commission and be arrested”.
“Condemning these openly unconstitutional acts of Gyanesh Kumar, we have organised a protest tomorrow at Freedom Park and have also invited members of other political parties. Any party that believes in the democratic system can participate in this protest. If such things continue, elections in the future will become a mere formality,” he said.
He added that in the second phase, protests would be held in all districts demanding the resignation and arrest of Gyanesh Kumar.
Hariprasad said a report published in the newspaper on September 23 clearly reflected the points Rahul Gandhi had raised earlier.
“Gyanesh Kumar has no moral right to remain in the position he holds and he should resign immediately, and he should be arrested,” he demanded, adding that a comprehensive and independent inquiry should be conducted.
Referring to his press conference on Thursday regarding Belagavi, Hariprasad said he had released a letter written by BJP MLA Abhay Patil, in which he had called for the deletion of the votes of 2,500 voters.
“Today, I have applications relating to 65,000 deleted votes in my possession. None of these applications contains the signatures of the concerned individuals,” he said.
“When we examined this matter, we found that a large proportion of the deleted voters were minorities and Dalits. An attempt is being made to take away the voting rights of the poor. Such attempts have taken place in Babaleshwar and Hubballi-Dharwad. The errors are not in the electoral rolls themselves; they are in the Election Commission’s SIR process,” he added.
Noting that central BJP leaders come forward to defend the Election Commission whenever it is criticised, the KPCC chief said, “When we question the Election Commission, the Commission itself should provide the answers. Instead, it is the BJP leaders who are responding.” PTI KSU SSK
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