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Snapshot of the day
September 22, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia, Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh S.K.
Since the first elections, the Election Commission of India has always been one of the more respected institutions in the country. But now mistrust runs deep. Opposition parties have accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of enabling “vote chori” and sought his removal. Opposition leaders are planning to hold press conferences tomorrow and some have demanded fresh elections in Maharashtra, Bengal, Bihar and Delhi.
All this prompted by an explosive investigative story.
In its package of exposes, led by Ritika Chopra, the Indian Express has uncovered a measure of dysfunction at the very top of the Election Commission, revealing that over the last ten months, commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have objected to or complained about being unaware of key developments connected to the highly contentious special intensive revision of voter rolls. Their concerns were primarily over the way new voters are enrolled, the EC’s actions after the Bengal SIR and ‘overcentralisation’ of the commission’s portal for managing the rolls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have not publicly addressed the investigation even as the ruling party has defended the ECI. It raises a question the government must answer: has its urgent push for the SIR been driven by more than a desire to clean up voter rolls?
A provision enacted by the Modi government in 2023 now carries sharper political significance. Section 16 of the law governing the CEC and other election commissioners protects serving and former commissioners from civil or criminal proceedings in court for acts done, or purportedly done, in the discharge of their official duties. As demands grow for Kumar to face consequences beyond resignation over alleged disenfranchisement, its wording deserves close attention:
“Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, no Court shall entertain or continue any civil or criminal proceedings against any person who is or was a Chief Election Commissioner or an Election Commissioner for any act, thing or word, committed, done or spoken by him when, or in the course of acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty or function.”
Why has this become so urgent?
You’ll remember
