Revisit SIR exercise, CEC must resign: Naveen Patnaik on report of internal disquiet in poll panel
According to a newspaper report, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders of the CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
On Friday, September 25, 2026, BJD President Naveen Patnaik called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign immediately and for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls (SIR) to be re-examined. His comments came in response to a newspaper report revealing internal disagreements within the three-member Election Commission regarding decisions and instructions concerning the electoral-roll revision.
These disagreements included deletions and additions of names, modifications to forms for new voters, and access to voter data.
Patnaik alleged that tensions between the election commissioners and the chief election commissioner led to the resignation of the CEC, with the entire SIR process requiring a thorough review. The BJD has long opposed the SIR process and threatened to protest on the streets if the CEC did not step down. The newspaper report stated that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected 14 times over the past ten months to decisions and orders issued by CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
Previously, the BJD had accused the SIR exercise of omitting over 25 lakh eligible voters from the electoral rolls. Earlier this week, a BJD spokesperson stated that along with others, the party was dismayed by the scrutiny of the Election Commission's independence and impartiality. Following the 2024 Assembly elections, where the BJD was defeated by the BJP, the party lost all 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, while the BJP secured 20 seats. The Congress claimed victory in one Lok Sabha seat.
BJD senior general secretary Bhrugu Baxipatra alleged that before the 2024 elections, Odisha had 3.26 crore voters, which increased to 3.32 crore during the elections, then further rose to 3.36 crore shortly after the polls. By 2025, the number of registered voters had reached 3.40 crore, according to Baxipatra. The BJD argued that before the commencement of the SIR process in the state, the Chief Electoral Officer only mapped 3.16 crore voters, leaving approximately 25 lakh voters unregistered and excluded before the exercise began.
Odisha's Chief Electoral Officer R. S. Gopalan released the final electoral roll on September 21, which contained 3.16 crore names.
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