Left parties seek removal of CEC, halt to SIR

Members of the CPI(M), SUCI (Communist), and the CPI staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Dharwad on Friday, seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and an immediate halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The parties submitted a memorandum to the President through the Deputy Commissioner, seeking the restoration of the voting rights of those who had allegedly been wrongly excluded from the electoral rolls, and seeking measures to restore public confidence in the Election Commission of India.

The protest followed a media report on September 23 that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had recorded objections on 14 occasions over a 10-month period to decisions concerning voter registration, deletion, and restoration of names and aspects of the SIR exercise.