Trade unions, farm outfits join chorus to remove CEC Gyanesh Kumar

The Left parties, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), trade unions, students and youth organisations have decided to step up protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for his “illegal” actions that allegedly led to the deletion of millions of voters from the electoral rolls in several States during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

The All India Students Association (AISA) alleged that by editing the existing Form 6, the application form for inclusion of an individual’s name in the electoral roll, the Election Commission of India (ECI) was trying to stop members of ‘Gen Z’ from enrolling as voters.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankara Bhattacharya said his party did a house-to-house survey in certain constituencies in Bihar where mass deletions were reported during the 2025 SIR. He said the party found that a substantial number of voters had been wrongly deleted from the electoral rolls.

In Aigaon and Ziradei constituencies, where his party lost the election by 95 and 2,626 votes respectively, the party surveyed 204 voters whose names had been deleted before SIR in three booths and found 46 of them, or 22.5%, still residing in their villages.

“In four booths, the survey found that of 665 voters deleted during SIR, 77 were living in the village. More than 2,000 voters could have been wrongfully excluded across Aigaon,” he added.

In Ziradei, he said that of the nine booths surveyed, 122 of 665 voters whose names were deleted during SIR were still residing in the village, while 15 of 189 voters deleted before the SIR were also found there.

AISA president Neha, who was also present, said the Delhi Police were not allowing any protests in and around Jantar Mantar, and that force was used to suppress the youth and student protests demanding Mr. Kumar’s resignation. She said the SIR process undermined the universal right to vote. “The Form 6 is being edited. The exercise to update the electoral rolls is not taking place. It is a deliberate attempt to keep ‘Gen Z’ out of the electoral process,” she said.

Trade unions, farm outfits to join protests

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has demanded the immediate resignation of Mr. Kumar, taking responsibility for the “disenfranchisement and disentitlement” of working people due to the ongoing SIR.

“The majority of the victims are poor, marginalised and mostly migrant workers who are made to wander here and there to enrol as voters, losing their earnings for no fault of theirs,” CITU general secretary Elamaram Kareem said in a statement.

“The provisions of the Labour Codes making identity cards prescribed by the Central Government mandatory for enrolling and availing of social security benefits under the Social Security Code reveal the dangers of the probable prescription of the EPIC card as identity proof in place of the prevailing Aadhaar Card, which shall potentially push all those out of the electoral rolls out of the meagre social security net that exists,” he added.

The SKM demanded the immediate removal and prosecution of Mr. Kumar. “The unilateral and authoritarian acts by Gyanesh Kumar as the CEC amount to treason. He should be prosecuted as per law in a befitting manner to serve as a lesson against such probable actions by any belligerent bureaucrats in the future,” the SKM said.

It also demanded amendments to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. The SKM said the Act altered the selection committee’s composition by removing the Chief Justice of India and replacing that position with a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister, effectively establishing a 2-to-1 government majority on the selection panel.