Congress calls for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down.
Accuses the poll body of acting as a front for the ruling leadership.
Claims current ECI actions are a direct affront to the Constitution.
Ramping up pressure on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Congress on Monday said the first step in the long road to reclaiming the country's democracy is the resignation of the CEC who is both a front for the "diabolical PM-HM duo" and an affront to the Constitution.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared an interview of former Supreme Court judge Sudhanshu Dhulia in which he has said that the apex court has laid down the law in several judgments on citizenship and it "is not the Election Commission of India's job".
In his post on X, Ramesh said, "The ECI is Election Commission of India, not Establisher of Citizenship of Indians."
ECI Cannot Determine Citizenship
"In an interview to a leading newspaper published this morning, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, who retired from the Supreme Court last year, has reaffirmed categorically that it is NOT the ECI's job or Constitutional responsibility to determine citizenship as it has been doing under SIR," he said.
Ramesh further said citizenship is determined under the Citizenship Act, 1955 as amended by Parliament from time to time, he said.
A Constitutional functionary himself, the CEC has deliberately and clearly violated the Constitution in letter and spirit on the citizenship and other issues like illegally amending Form 6 to disenfranchise Gen Z voters, Ramesh said.
Congress Demands CEC Resignation
"The first step in the long road to reclaiming our democracy is the resignation of the CEC who is both a front for the diabolical PM-HM (Narendra Modi-Amit Shah) duo and an affront to the Constitution of India," the Congress general secretary said.
His remarks come a day after the Congress said the EC's proposed measures related to SIR are an admission that the exercise has been a "disaster" and asserted that the "piecemeal" steps for deleted or at risk voters will do little to mitigate this "mass disenfranchisement".
Ramesh had said the press note issued by the Election Commission on Saturday night has already been debunked and exposed for what it is--"a desperate attempt at damage control that hides all and reveals nothing".
He said the proposed measures around the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls are an admission that it has been a "disaster".
"The piecemeal measures for deleted or at risk voters will do little to mitigate this mass disenfranchisement. For 5.43 crore voters who are at risk of deletion, the EC has promised that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will now visit their houses. This was supposed to happen during the house-to-house enumeration phase," Ramesh had said in his statement posted on X.
On Saturday, the Election Commission asserted that all SIR orders received unanimous consent from all three commissioners and that the updates to Form 6 for voter enrolment were upheld by the Supreme Court, as it sought to address issues at the centre of a raging row over decision-making in the poll panel and concerns over exclusion of voters from the rolls.
After its first meeting following reports claiming differences between CEC Kumar and the two election commissioners, the poll panel had said in a statement that the letters sent by Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary pertained to an officer on deputation, rather than policy or IT division matters.
The Indian Express has claimed that Sandhu and Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on SIR that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
