States » EastPosted at: Sep 25 2026 6:33PM


Odisha Congress stages protest demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation

Bhubaneswar, Sep 25 (UNI) Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Bhakta Charan Das and several senior party leaders were taken into custody on Thursday while demonstrating outside the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office here, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Hundreds of Congress workers, led by Das, took out a procession from the ADM office towards the CEO’s office. However, police deployed in large numbers stopped the protesters from proceeding further, leading to the detention and arrest of Mr Das and several other party leaders.
Following the arrests, the Congress launched a mass sit-in at Lower PMG here under the leadership of Mr Das and announced that it would continue its Satyagraha until Mr Kumar was removed from the post of CEC.
Addressing the media during the rally, Das referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on August 7, 2025, at which he had alleged irregularities involving voters in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka and claimed to have presented documentary evidence.
Das alleged that the Modi government was using the Election Commission as a tool to “steal” the country’s electoral process. He further alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar, acting at the behest of the BJP government, had conducted a flawed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country, thereby undermining the democratic process.
The OPCC president further alleged that over the past 10 months, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to various decisions of the Commission on 14 occasions, but the CEC had ignored them and continued taking decisions at his discretion.
Das also alleged that Form-6, which is used for the inclusion of new voters in electoral rolls, had been changed illegally despite the Election Commission not having the authority to alter it in such a manner.
He cited the views of three former Election Commissioners—S.Y. Quraishi, Ashok Lavasa and O.P. Rawat,who, he said, had independently supported the core allegations during separate television programmes.
Das claimed that Rawat had described the alteration of Form-6 as “completely illegal” and had maintained that the CEC could not take decisions unilaterally.
Questioning the reported differences within the Election Commission, Das asked why two serving Election Commissioners had to raise their grievances outside the Commission if serious differences existed over important decisions.
He also questioned the accountability of the Modi government and alleged that the Modi-Shah government had enacted a law providing the CEC and Election Commissioners extensive protection from civil and criminal proceedings for official acts.
Das described the Election Commission’s explanation that decisions had been taken unanimously despite differences among the commissioners as “ridiculous”.
UNI DP
Tags: #Odisha Congress stages protest demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation
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