Modi Faces Protests Over Election Commission Scandal — SkimNews
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- Indian Express investigation alleged Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar added and deleted names from India's voter rolls without consulting his two deputies over 10 months, ignoring 14 formal written complaints — breaching the unanimity norm the Supreme Court upheld against T.N. Seshan in the 1990s.
- The alleged irregularities occurred amid the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which struck 9 million names from West Bengal's rolls ahead of May state elections that Modi's BJP won, ending the Trinamool Congress's 15-year hold on the state legislature.
- The Congress party demanded a Supreme Court investigation and Kumar's immediate resignation, while the Cockroach Janta Party — fresh off forcing Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's July exit over leaked national exams — issued a Sept. 26 ultimatum for Kumar's resignation that went unmet.
- The Cockroach movement is threatening a Mumbai protest on Oct. 2, coinciding with Mohandas Gandhi's birthday, demanding Kumar's removal, restoration of pre-January 2025 voter rolls, and repeal of a 2023 law governing election commissioner appointments.
- The BJP denies any malfeasance under Kumar and calls the charges "baseless," while civil society groups accuse the SIR of disproportionately striking Muslim voters who lack the paperwork to contest their removal before adjudication tribunals.
Why it matters: With 9 million names already struck from West Bengal's rolls ahead of a BJP victory, the SIR has become the test case for whether India's electoral institutions can resist executive pressure — and the unanimity norm Kumar allegedly breached carries Supreme Court precedent. The Cockroach movement has already forced one Modi-cabinet exit this year; sustaining pressure on Kumar would mark the first sustained breach of the BJP's dominance since 2014.
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