The leaders of India’s “Cockroach” youth movement declared on Thursday that they would start nationwide protests if the country’s chief election officer did not step down within 48 hours. This announcement came one day after a newspaper article revealed disagreements among the senior officers in charge of the poll panel. The Indian Express newspaper reported on Wednesday that two election commissioners have voiced concerns or raised issues at least 14 times in the last ten months, primarily in relation to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s procedure of updating voter rolls, which started last year.
The Indian Election Commission declared that all of its acts were lawful and that disputes were typical in any organization. On Wednesday, the political opposition in India also called for the dismissal of the country’s top election officer. The national revision that removed millions of names from voter lists since last year has put the Election Commission of India (ECI) under fire in recent months. The opposition claims the modification is politically driven and targets legitimate voters, while the ruling party claims it attempts to remove improperly registered voters.
The three-member ECI’s internal conflicts were the main subject of the Indian Express investigation. It claimed that during the previous ten months, Gyanesh Kumar, the head of the body, disregarded the objections of the other two members at least fourteen times, resulting in the expulsion of about 130 million voters. According to the report, the commission is intended to operate based on the consensus of at least two members, therefore such overrulings might be illegal.
Kumar was accused by the main opposition Congress party of acting unilaterally at the request of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.In a social media post, Congress party spokesperson Pawan Khera stated, “It was already known that things were not exactly well within the ECI.”However, it is now evident how chaotic, dysfunctional, and, to be honest, unsettling things had gotten.” Senior Congress party leader K. C. Venugopal called for Kumar’s “immediate removal” and an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court.
Also Read:
At the Global Investor Roadshow in New York, ADX and its Listed Firms Engage with Foreign Investors
In Just Six Months, MoHRE Found 377 Instances of “Fake Emiratization” in 266 Private Businesses
About Author
