New Delhi: India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, led an INDIA bloc march to the Supreme Court on Monday to submit a memorandum demanding the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged large-scale vote fraud and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The march, planned after weeks of nationwide protests, sought the court’s intervention against what the opposition has described as the “theft of votes” through the deletion of approximately 130 million names from voter lists. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had earlier written to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant seeking an appointment to hand over the memorandum. The CJI declined the request.
In his response, Justice Surya Kant said related matters concerning the revision of electoral rolls are already pending before the Supreme Court in its judicial capacity. He stated that the court cannot entertain such representations at the administrative level and advised the leaders to file a formal petition instead. “The Supreme Court is for common people” and remains open to all citizens through proper legal channels, the Chief Justice emphasised, noting that the institution’s power lies in hearing cases and delivering judgments rather than meeting political delegations.
The opposition has alleged that the SIR exercise, which began in Bihar and was later expanded, systematically removed legitimate voters, particularly affecting opposition strongholds. Data cited by parties and media reports indicate that roughly 13 crore names were struck off draft rolls across multiple states and Union Territories. The controversy intensified after an Indian Express investigation reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised formal objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions on voter additions, deletions, Form 6 changes and centralised control of electoral databases—concerns the Congress says were overridden.
The Election Commission and the BJP have rejected the allegations, maintaining that deletions resulted from deaths, migration, duplicates and untraceable entries, and that internal differences form part of normal institutional deliberation. The Commission has defended the SIR as a necessary clean-up of the rolls after a long gap.
Monday’s march forms part of a broader opposition campaign that has included state-level protests, calls for an SC-monitored probe, and demands to suspend the SIR and restore deleted names. Opposition leaders argue that the scale of deletions has cast doubt on the integrity of recent and upcoming elections, while the government maintains that the process strengthens electoral purity.
With cases on the SIR already before the top court, the CJI’s refusal effectively channels the opposition’s grievances into the judicial process. The opposition has indicated it will continue its public campaign while pursuing legal remedies. The episode underscores the deepening confrontation between the opposition and the Election Commission over the conduct of the voter-list revision and the independence of the poll body.