Congress Will Continue Agitation Until CEC Gyanesh Kumar Is Removed, Says KC Venugopal

The Congress will keep up its agitation against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar until he is removed and the electoral system is made "impartial and transparent," AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters in Alappuzha, Venugopal said protests were continuing across states and districts, with only a brief pause expected during Diwali. He called the November 1 rally in New Delhi one of the strongest demonstrations the country has seen and said the party was taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.

"We will withdraw from this agitation only after Gyanesh Kumar is removed from the post and steps are taken to make India's electoral system and processes flawless, impartial and fair. This is not a struggle that we will abandon midway," Venugopal said.

Rolls And Rights

Venugopal linked the protest to voter-roll deletions. He said removing names from electoral rolls would deny poor people their voting rights and their access to government benefits.

He also said government benefits were increasingly being tied to voter identity cards, making deletions from the rolls more serious for poorer voters.

The party plans to take the campaign to the grassroots. Venugopal said it would launch a nationwide 'Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao' (Save the Vote, Save the Nation) campaign at the panchayat level over the next one-and-a-half months.

The party plans booth-level checks. Venugopal said Congress would appoint a 'Vote Rakshak' in every polling booth to scrutinise electoral rolls, identify people whose names had been deleted and visit their homes to help restore those names.

Congress units were organising programmes across states and districts, and plans were being drawn up for joint programmes with other political parties, Venugopal said.

Parliament is the next arena. Venugopal said the issue would be raised strongly in the upcoming Parliament session and added that the Opposition would also take up recent controversies and issues affecting the public.

ECI Response Context

In its October 2026 response to a Supreme Court petition concerning CEC Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission of India said the revision directives had been approved unanimously by all three commissioners, Form 6 for voter registration had not been amended, and additions or deletions required approval by Electoral Registration Officers.

The Commission also defended the SIR as legally authorised and said the exercise was meant to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, while denying favouring a political party.

(With PTI Inputs)