Supreme Court, take note: Opposition on report of dissent within EC over SIR

The Opposition has reacted sharply to a report claiming that two Election Commissioners had dissented with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over various aspects of the SIR exercise.Akhilesh Yadav and CEC Gyanesh KumarThe opposition has raised concerns about the Election Commission's functioning after an Indian Express report claimed that two of the three Election Commissioners objected 14 times to various aspects of the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise over the past 10 months.In sharp remarks, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav called on the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter, while Congress MP Manish Tewari alleged that there was an "invisible hand" running the Election Commission.The investigation has revealed that the two Election Commissioners - Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi - objected to various aspects like new voter registration, deletion and restoration of voters in the rolls and filing of appeals against orders restoring voters in the SIR process.The three-member ECI is headed by CEC Gyanesh Kumar, who has faced severe criticism from the opposition over the SIR process. The SIR exercise to weed out ineligible and dead voters, which began in June last year with Bihar, has led to over 13 crore names being deleted from the draft rolls in 30 states and Union Territories so far. The maximum deletions have been in the Delhi and Maharashtra draft rolls.- EndsPublished By: Abhishek DePublished On: Sep 23, 2026 09:52 IST