Congress stages protests demanding CEC’s resignation

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president, Mahesh Kumar Goud, called for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. Goud accused the CEC of transparency issues and credibility problems in the Election Commission's handling of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The protest rally was organized by the TPCC from the Indira Gandhi Statue on Necklace Road to the Chief Electoral Officer's office.

TPCC leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, Duddilla Sridhar Babu, Mohammed Azharuddin, Mohammed Azharuddin, and Gaddam Vivek Venkataswamy, met with CEC's representative, C. Sudarshan Reddy, and submitted a memorandum. The Congress leaders raised concerns about the deletion of nearly 13 crore names during the SIR exercise across 30 states and union territories.

They also questioned the handling of voter registration, deletion, and restoration of names, as well as the management of electoral-roll databases. The Election Commission maintained that the deletions were within statutory provisions and were made unanimously. The TPCC demanded the publication of minutes, orders, and objections related to the decisions in question, as well as an independent review of the deletions and their reasons.

They also sought a public explanation from the Election Commission on the objections raised by two Election Commissioners and the subsequent decision-making process.