Telangana CM Revanth demands Modi’s resignation or removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar
New Delhi, Oct 8 (TNT): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi either remove Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar or step down, alleging that more than 13 crore voters had been deleted from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
Participating in the ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ protest organised by the INDIA bloc in New Delhi, Reddy alleged that the exercise was aimed at depriving marginalised sections of their voting rights.
His claims about the scale and targeting of deletions are allegations made by him; the Election Commission has maintained that names removed from rolls include ineligible entries such as deceased, duplicate and migrated voters.
The Chief Minister said Modi should take moral responsibility for the alleged deletion of voters and warned that people would “dethrone” him if the BJP attempted to retain power through what he described as the misuse of the Election Commission.
He said the ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ campaign was not merely a Congress or INDIA bloc movement but a struggle to protect the voting rights of citizens.
Reddy said the number of voters had increased from about 81 crore in 2014 to 91 crore in 2019 and 97 crore in 2024.
Against this backdrop, he questioned how more than 13 crore names could have gone missing from electoral rolls when the country’s population had reached around 140 crore.
He alleged that the SIR process was particularly targeting the votes of Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and other marginalised sections.
The Chief Minister accused the BJP of attempting to divide people on the basis of caste, religion, region and language and alleged that the process was creating two categories of citizens — those with voting rights and those without.
He also criticised the alleged refusal of the Election Commission to meet opposition leaders who approached it with complaints and alleged police action against leaders protesting over the issue.
Reddy said agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and Central Bureau of Investigation could not protect the BJP government from public opposition and demanded immediate action against the CEC.
The Chief Minister participated in the protest led by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and other INDIA bloc leaders also participated.
The leaders marched towards Rajghat and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi.
TNT KM
