Mainstream WeeklyA report carried in The Indian Express on September 23, 2026, has completely shattered public confidence in the mode of operations of the Election Commission of India. To put it in the words of the report: “The Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which began in Bihar in June 2025, an otherwise routine clean-up of the rolls, has struck more than 13 crore names off the draft voter rolls in 30 States and Union Territories. This has put the Commission at the centre of intense public debate over its role in deciding who gets to vote – and who doesn’t. An investigation by The Indian Express reveals that questions were raised on these very issues within the three-member Election Commission (EC) itself, time and again through much of this same period. By two of the three Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, no less.” The very caption of the report reveals the horrifying story – 14 times in 10 months, two Election Commissioners objected on record to steps taken by Commission – from keeping them in the dark to adding new voters and deleting names.
The publication of the report has given birth to a major political controversy. The Telegraph reported on the next day (September 24, 2026): “The Opposition…intensified its demand for the impeachment of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar against the backdrop of The Indian Express report on how the two election commissioners had repeatedly objected to several decisions about which they were kept in the dark during the SIR drive that began last year.” What Abhishek Singhvi, the eminent jurist and Congress MP told the media is worthy of serious attention: “It is a well-known fact that 130 million people – a figure exceeding the total population of most European countries – have been struck off with a single stroke of a pen or a click of a computer mouse…” He demanded in the light of the objections recorded by the two election commissioners: “We demand that all these objections be placed before the House – forget Parliament, forget the EC – right on the floor of the House. The nation must know, and do not tell us to resort to RTI (Right to Information Act), because we know we will only hit a stone wall there…Dissent is not disruption. Dissent is the protection of democracy.” (Quoted in ibid.)
S Y Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, has raised a fundamental question regarding the legal validity of the decisions unilaterally taken by the present CEC (Gyanesh Kumar), in his article carried in The Indian Express (September 24, 2026) with the title ‘Chief Election Commissioner is not the Election Commission of India’: “The question is no longer only whether the SIR was wise, fair or administratively sound. A real question arises: Were decisions being taken by the ECI at all? If not, can these be held to be legal?” He clarified the legal aspect of his argument: The law is clear…all business of the Commission shall, as far as possible, be transacted unanimously. If the CEC and Election Commissioners differ, the matter “shall be decided according to the opinion of the majority”.
The SIR issue is organically connected with our citizenship rights. In the wake of publication of the horrifying Indian Express Report, Manoj Jha, RJD MP, has raised this fundamental question of democracy: “Ultimately, the issue is not who won an election. The issue is whether the citizen can still believe that her vote was hers to cast – and the constitutional machinery was there to protect it.” (The Indian Express, September 24, 2026)
In fact, SIR has been used as a tool of depriving millions of people to exercise their voting rights. And the Election Commission of India reportedly did it with the unilateral decision of the Chief Election Commissioner of India. It is quite significant that the BJP came to power in a number of states in the post-SIR phase.
The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, while demanding immediate resignation of the CEC, alleged – Elections in India are being rigged, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar acted as “deshdrohis” (traitors) by destroying the country’s votes. (See The Hindu, September 25, 2026)
What will happen in the coming days in the legal domain on this burning issue is difficult to predict. However, it goes without saying that the SIR exercise, allegedly unilaterally given shape by the CEC, is a direct subversion of the credibility of the Election Commission of India.