Protesters gather at Jantar Mantar, demand CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s ouster

A protest was held in New Delhi on Friday demanding the ouster of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in a political row over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, local media reported.

According to reports, the Indian Youth Congress workers planned a march from Raisina Road to Jantar Mantar and protesters called for Kumar to resign. As demonstrations over the working of the poll panel continued, police were deployed in the area.

The protests followed calls by opposition groups and the Cockroach Janta Party for Kumar to resign. The CJP on Thursday gave him 48 hours to resign, threatening a nationwide agitation if he failed to do so.

The row is partly over the SIR exercise and reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to several decisions related to electoral-roll processes. The Election Commission said that it was normal for divergent views to emerge during institutional deliberations and asserted that its decisions were unanimous.

Separately, Congress has asked its state units to hold protests at the offices of the state Election Commission demanding Kumar’s removal and an independent review of changes in the electoral rolls.