Pressure reportedly mounts on India poll chief Gyanesh Kumar over voter list changes
INDA•India’s opposition parties and the youth-led Cockroach movement are demanding election chief Gyanesh Kumar resign over alleged voter-list manipulation. Election Commission data shows more than 130 million names have been removed from voter lists since revisions began last year.
1. Calls for resignation
India’s opposition parties and the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party are pressing Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign over accusations of widespread voter-list manipulation during an exercise to verify one billion voters. The movement has called a protest in New Delhi for Saturday, while the opposition alliance led by the Congress party staged protests this week.
2. Voter list changes
Election Commission data shows more than 130 million names have been struck from voter lists since the latest round of revisions began last year. Nearly 650 million of the 960 million registered voters cast ballots in the 2024 general election.
3. Disputed allegations
Criticism intensified after a newspaper reported that Kumar’s two deputies had raised at least 14 formal objections over 10 months to decisions involving voter rolls, registration procedures and the poll body’s digital systems. Kumar has denied the accusations, and government ministers, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission have rejected the charges. Parliament rejected an opposition motion to remove Kumar this year.
