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CEC Gyanesh Kumar is a constitutional failure. Damage is not procedural, it is existential

Former CEC TN Seshan was feared, formidable & famously outspoken. He was never partisan. In contrast, Gyanesh Kumar has a cavalier disdain, even disrespect, toward the Opposition.

It’s no longer a political disagreement. It is a constitutional moment.

At 4 am, hours after the Assembly election dates were announced on Sunday, 15 March, and before the elections had been notified, the Election Commission ordered a sweeping administrative purge in West Bengal. Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police, Kolkata Police Commissioner, and ADG (Law and Order), the senior-most law and order officer, were all removed in one stroke.

Five of the most critical pillars of state administration were removed at 4 am—not during office hours but in the dead of night.

Today, more than 50 senior officials of Bengal, including District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police, have been transferred.

Not routine. Not neutral. Nothing but raw, centralised flaunting of power at a politically sensitive pre-election moment by the so-called “election watchdog.”

The message is unmistakable: Bengal will be ‘disciplined’, Bengal’s administrative machinery will be crippled, and in Bengal, the Election Commission will act not as a neutral umpire, but as an enforcer. Bengal is the target. Why? Because TMC-ruled Bengal has repeatedly defeated the ruling BJP in a series of elections post-2012. Now the BJP-EC combine wants to defeat Mamata Banerjee at any cost.

Under Article 324, the Election Commission is entrusted with the “superintendence, direction and control” of elections. But that power is not absolute—it is conditioned by constitutional morality, federal balance, and judicial interpretation.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly clarified the limits and purpose of this power. In PUCL vs Union of India (2003), the Court held that the right to vote is an expression protected under Article 19(1)(a) and citizens have a right to obtain information about political candidates. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) vs Union of India (2002) placed transparency at the heart of elections. And in the Anoop Baranwal vs Union of India (2023), the apex court warned against executive capture of the Election Commission, emphasising that independence is the lifeblood of electoral democracy. This landmark judgment was overridden by the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act 2023 by which the Narendra Modi government removed the Chief Justice from the selection panel of election commissioners and replaced the CJI with a cabinet minister.

In a democracy, perception is not incidental—it is everything. The credibility of elections rests not only on fairness but on the public belief in that fairness. When that belief erodes, the damage is not procedural; it is existential.

The doctrine is clear: Free and fair elections, conducted by an independent and neutral body, form part of the Basic Structure of the Constitution.

It is against this doctrine that Gyanesh Kumar’s tenure must be judged. And Kumar fails the test. One hundred and ninety-three MPs have signed a notice seeking the impeachment of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.........

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