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New Delhi: Opposition parties on Wednesday (September 23) demanded immediate impeachment proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar after an expose by Ritika Chopra for The Indian Express claimed that two of the three Election Commissioners – Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi – who formally recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months, said they were not included in major decisions made in the name of the full Election Commission, calling the decisions “unauthorised and illegal”.

The opposition parties have heavily criticised the actions and also asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the Express report, published on Wednesday (September 23). The report stated that on various instances, Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi asked questions to the very institution they head, seemingly unaware about crucial information related to the Special Investigation Revision (SIR) process which has left millions of citizens out of the electoral roll.

This included Joshi’s official warning that Form 6 could not be changed in a manner to make it mandatory for new voters to answer their parents/ grandparents “exist” in the “electoral roll of last SIR.” This was followed by Sandhu putting on record on August 13 that it was “unauthorised and illegal” and “must be removed immediately”. However, the question continues to be a part of Form 6.

The two election commissioners also raised questions regarding the ERONet portal – the digital system through which the electoral rolls are maintained. Sandhu recorded that state-level election officials were reporting that they do not have proper and complete access” to the portal. The defence the Election Commission has relied on for decades, the two ECs reportedly said, was being dismantled from inside its own IT division.

Meanwhile, ECI sources as quoted by The Hindu responded to the allegations saying “all decisions of the Election Commission of India, including SIR, have been unanimous and with the approval of both the Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner”.

‘Clear that Gyanesh Kumar was chief architect of vote chori’

Sharing the report in a post on X, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said that following the........

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