SHILLONG — The Election Commission row took a more confrontational turn in Meghalaya on Friday as Congress workers took to the streets, burned an effigy of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and demanded that he step down, face an inquiry and be arrested over allegations surrounding the electoral process.
Led by Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president Vincent H. Pala, the protesters marched from Congress Bhavan towards the Additional Secretariat before burning the effigy. The demonstration was part of the Congress’s nationwide protests against Kumar, with the party accusing the Election Commission of undermining the electoral system through its handling of the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls.
Pala targeted Kumar over a reported series of objections raised inside the three-member Election Commission. An Indian Express investigation reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded at least 14 objections over 10 months on decisions linked to SIR, including voter deletions and electoral-roll data. Pala alleged that the objections were simply overridden.
“For the last 10 months, the two Election Commissioners raised 14 objections, but he bulldozed all these with the help of the BJP,” Pala alleged.
The Congress leader went further, alleging manipulation of electoral data in several states and claiming that changes to the electoral system had affected the public mandate. He specifically referred to Haryana, Maharashtra and West Bengal while demanding action against the CEC.
“We demand that he should step down and resign immediately. There should be a commission of inquiry against him; he should be arrested; then only will people have trust and faith in the Constitution and in the system which the Election Commission has been running for so long,” Pala said.
The Election Commission has rejected suggestions that differing internal views indicate a breakdown in its functioning. It has said internal notes, objections and observations are part of normal institutional deliberations and maintained that final decisions taken over the past year, including those concerning SIR, were unanimous.
Pala said Meghalaya Congress would wait for the Congress Working Committee’s decision on the next course of action, while indicating that similar protests would be organised at the district level.
