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Expressing concern over questions raised about the functioning of the Election Commission under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's leadership, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday urged President Droupadi Murmu to immediately remove Kumar and initiate an inquiry into the poll bodys functioning.
This comes after areport by the Indian Express that said that decisions taken on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process were objected to by two of the three Election Commissioners. According to the report, "Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions taken and orders issued without their knowledge." In a statement, calling for institutional accountability, Siddaramaiah urged the President to intervene decisively. "I strongly condemn what I see as the authoritarian functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Taking this constitutional breach with the seriousness it deserves, I urge the President of India, as the guardian of the Constitution, to immediately remove Gyanesh Kumar from office and direct the Union Government to initiate an investigation against him," Siddaramaiah said. Terming the issue a matter of "the very survival of our democracy," Siddaramaiah said the repeated internal dissents directly undermine public confidence in the electoral system. "These are not ordinary differences of opinion. They concern serious issues such as the registration of new voters, addition and deletion of names from electoral rolls, control over the electoral-roll database, and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process," he said. Highlighting specific instances flagged in the report, the former Karnataka Chief Minister noted that objections were raised regarding the insertion of an unauthorised question in Form 6 used for voter registration without statutory amendments, as well as the "gradual centralisation" of the voter database at the expense of local election officers. "The Election Commission must answer some fundamental questions: Who controls this highly sensitive electoral-roll system? Under whose authority are changes being made? Why do legally empowered officials at the state level not have complete access?" Siddaramaiah asked. He also raised concerns regarding the SIR process in West Bengal, pointing out that questions arose after nearly 16 lakh appeals were filed seeking the deletion of names that had been ordered for inclusion by judicial officers. "The investigation has revealed that Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu himself raised these questions, stating that neither he, the other Election Commissioner, nor the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal was kept informed," Siddaramaiah alleged. Accusing the Chief Election Commissioner of unilateral decision-making, Siddaramaiah said communications were issued in the Commissions name without collective approval. "The Election Commission must function institutionally, in accordance with the Constitution and the law. Its functioning cannot be reduced to the decisions of a single individual. The Commission must not stand with any political party; it must stand with the Constitution and the voter," he said. (ANI)
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