Odisha Congress protests to demand removal of Chief Election Commissioner

The Odisha Congress party staged a protest in Bhubaneswar on Friday, surrounding the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to demand the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Led by Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Bhakta Charan Das, party members marched from the ADM office to the CEO office to demonstrate against alleged irregularities in the electoral process.

During the protest, Das accused Kumar of acting on behalf of the BJP-led central government. He claimed that allegations of ‘vote theft’ previously raised by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi have been validated. The Congress leadership alleged that the central government is using the Election Commission as a tool to facilitate these irregularities.

Specific allegations included the oversight of a flawed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and the unilateral decision-making of the Chief Election Commissioner. Das noted that other Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had raised objections to various decisions 14 times over the last 10 months, but these were reportedly ignored. Furthermore, the party alleged illegal modifications were made to Form-6, used for adding new voters to the electoral rolls.