'CEC Must Present Stance Clearly, Problematic if People Begin to Doubt Electoral Process': Chirag Paswan
New Delhi: Union minister Chirag Paswan on Friday (September 25) has demanded that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar should publicly address the concerns raised by The Indian Express's Ritika Chopra's investigation which revealed an internal split within the members of the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the ongoing controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls process, saying it would be "problematic if people begin to doubt electoral process itself".
The daily citing internal notes and correspondence spanning October 2025 to August 2026 reported that Election Commissioners (ECs) Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected on at least 14 occasions over ten months to significant decisions taken under Kumar's leadership.
Paswan, an important National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner, argued that as the ECI is a constitutional body operating independently, the CEC must address the controversy.
"If questions are being raised on Election Commission, which is an independent constitutional body, responsibility lies with CEC to present his stance clearly. It is problematic if people begin to doubt electoral process itself. The EC needs to present its stance, not to Rahul Gandhi, but to public," he said.
Meanwhile, former Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik called for Kumar's resignation a day after Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi made the demand.
"Because of the sharp differences between election commissioners and the chief election commissioner, the CEC should immediately resign, and the whole SIR process should be thoroughly revisited," Patnaik told reporters outside the Odisha Assembly on Friday, as per a PTI report.
Gandhi also asked the CEC to "turn approver," implying that Kumar knew Modi and Shah were protecting him and the poll body from public scrutiny and, therefore, he could provide evidence about the alleged electoral manipulation.
On Thursday, the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) has given a 48-hour ultimatum to Kumar to resign. The outfit has promised to launch a nationwide agitation from October 2, starting in Mumbai, in case the CEC didn't step down from his post.
Also read: What Happens If CEC Gyanesh Kumar Goes?
So far, 12 crore names have been deleted from the electoral rolls across the country via the SIR process. The two-part IE report suggests that the decisions related to the SIR taken by the CEC were largely in violation of Article 324 itself, which states that all decisions in the ECI will be taken unanimously as far as possible, and with the majority in agreement.
For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.
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