{"id":12377,"date":"2026-09-25T11:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeevaypunjab.com\/?p=12377"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:33:23","slug":"punjab-congress-protest-targets-cec-gyanesh-kumar-demands-removal-over-electoral-process-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeevaypunjab.com\/?p=12377","title":{"rendered":"Punjab Congress Protest Targets CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Demands Removal Over Electoral Process Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chandigarh\u0964 : Punjab Congress workers staged a major protest in Chandigarh on Friday, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over what the party described as serious concerns about the conduct and credibility of the electoral process. The protesters also raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging political collusion aimed at influencing the electoral system.

The demonstration, led by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, was part of the party’s wider campaign against the Election Commission’s handling of electoral-roll revisions and its objections to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Punjab. Reports from Chandigarh said police used water cannons when protesters attempted to move towards the Election Commission office in Sector 17.

Addressing the gathering, Warring alleged that new evidence was emerging about what he described as the compromised functioning of the office of the Chief Election Commissioner and its alleged proximity to the BJP. He claimed that electoral outcomes in recent state elections should be examined more closely and alleged that what appeared to be electoral victories were, in the Congress’s description, instances of “vote theft”.

Warring specifically referred to the 2024 Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra, arguing that the results required greater scrutiny in light of the BJP’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier that year. He also alleged that irregularities had affected the 2024 parliamentary elections. These claims are political allegations made by Congress and have not been established as findings against the Election Commission or the BJP.

A major focus of the protest was Punjab’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Warring reiterated the Congress demand that the SIR exercise be suspended until the next Punjab Assembly election and that the election be conducted using the electoral rolls that formed the basis of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, without deletions.

The Congress has argued that the revision process could exclude genuine voters, particularly people who are registering for the first time. Warring alleged that the requirements under the revised Form 6 have made voter registration unnecessarily difficult for young citizens. He particularly questioned requirements concerning the details of parents or grandparents in earlier electoral rolls, arguing that first-time voters may find such information difficult to establish.

The dispute over SIR comes amid a wider political confrontation between the Opposition and the Election Commission over electoral-roll management, transparency and the handling of voter data. Congress leaders have also cited reported internal objections raised by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi on various issues related to electoral-roll processes, voter registration and election technology. The Election Commission, however, has maintained that decisions concerning the SIR exercise were taken through the institution’s established process and were unanimous.

Former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who also addressed the protest, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had been raising concerns about the functioning of the Election Commission for several years. Randhawa alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission had together damaged public confidence in the country’s electoral institutions.

Randhawa argued that restoring confidence in the electoral system would require accountability and institutional scrutiny. He said the removal of the current Chief Election Commissioner should be treated by the Congress as the first step towards what he described as repairing the electoral system.

The Chandigarh protest forms part of a broader Congress mobilisation against CEC Gyanesh Kumar. The Punjab Congress has also demanded that an FIR be registered against Kumar and alleged collaborators, followed by their arrest\u2014demands that remain political assertions by the party rather than established findings of wrongdoing.

The controversy is unfolding at a politically significant time for Punjab, with the next Assembly election expected within months. The central issue is increasingly focused on how electoral rolls are prepared, how eligible voters are added or removed, and what safeguards are in place to ensure that genuine voters are not excluded.

For the Congress, the SIR exercise has therefore become a central electoral issue, while the Election Commission maintains that the revision process is part of its constitutional responsibility. The continuing dispute is likely to keep questions of voter registration, electoral-roll transparency and institutional accountability at the centre of political debate in Punjab in the run-up to the Assembly polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chandigarh\u0964 : Punjab Congress workers staged a major protest in Chandigarh on Friday, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over what the party described as serious concerns about the conduct and credibility of the electoral process. The protesters also raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,24,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nation","8":"category-politics","9":"category-punjab-2"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t