New Delhi [India], September 23 (ANI): Following the Indian Express report that said that two Election Commissioners had objected to discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, senior Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday announced party MP and Senior SC Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi's presser on behalf of the Indian National Congress (INC) to discuss how Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar has "destroyed the credibility and integrity" of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
In a post on social media platform X, Ramesh said, "Today at 1pm on behalf of the INC my colleague Dr Abhishek Singhvi will be speaking in detail to the media on the sensational revelations made in a leading national newspaper on the way the CEC has destroyed the credibility and integrity of the Election Commission of India."
The Congress move comes in the wake of an investigative report by the Indian Express which claimed that two Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised strong objections regarding discrepancies in the SIR process.
Several opposition leaders, including Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj and CPI(M) MP John Brittas, have also reacted to the report and raised questions over the SIR process.
Raut, while addressing a press conference, said, "Gyanesh Kumar should be suspended, and legal action should be taken against him. In this country, elections have become a farce. ECI comes under the Home Ministry. The number one criminal is Amit Shah. If the PM wants to save the nation, he should remove Amit Shah from the Cabinet. If Modi ji doesn't take action, then I will urge the President, who is the chief of all three security forces, to remove Gyanesh Kumar. If the President also takes no action, then the Army Chief should come forward to save the country from such 'hukumshahon'."
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav called upon the Supreme Court of India to take suo motu cognisance alleging that this amounted to a betrayal of democracy. In a post on X, he emphasised that the media report by The Indian Express directly means that all Election Commissioners are not able to perform their rightful duties.
"This is an extremely serious news that in the past 10 months, 2 Election Commissioners have registered their objections 14 times against the Election Commission's wrong decisions. This directly means that all Election Commissioners are not able to perform their rightful duties. If the members of an independent body do not have the freedom to carry out just actions or if there is no hearing of them, then these are extremely fatal and dangerous circumstances for democracy. For some people to betray democracy by becoming puppets of those in power is a grave constitutional crime. This is nothing less than a conspiracy to wipe out democracy. Supreme Court, take suo motu cognizance!" he said. (ANI)
"CEC destroyed credibility, integrity of ECI": Jairam Ramesh slams CEC, says Abhishek Singhvi to address press at 1 PM
