Police in Delhi detained several opposition lawmakers on Tuesday as they attempted to march, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, over a controversial revision of voter rolls. Main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka, and other MPs were reportedly forced into a police bus, released shortly after, and then resumed their march, beginning a sit-in near Election Commission headquarters.
Opposition parties accuse CEC Gyanesh Kumar of overseeing a process that could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both the BJP and the Election Commission have rejected this allegation. The Election Commission states its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which began in June 2025 and has since expanded, is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, with over 130 million names removed from draft lists nationwide.
The campaign against Kumar gained momentum following an Indian Express newspaper investigation, which reported that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders they claimed were issued in the Election Commission's name without their knowledge. The Election Commission, a three-member body, defended its process, stating that differing views are part of institutional functioning and that decisions were ultimately taken unanimously.
India's Supreme Court has requested responses from both the federal government and the Election Commission regarding a petition alleging that Kumar made key decisions without the approval of the other two election commissioners. The court indicated that Election Commission decisions must be taken either unanimously or by majority vote and suggested that decisions could be set aside if found to have bypassed that process. However, it declined to suspend Kumar at this stage, stating it would first hear the Election Commission's response and examine relevant records.