CWC meets on SIR row, to prepare roadmap for ramping up pressure on CEC, govt

New Delhi: Top Congress leaders met here on Tuesday to discuss the party's roadmap for upping the ante against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the government in the wake of "differences" within the Election Commission and alleged SIR irregularities.

The CWC meeting, chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, is being attended by former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, party general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, among others.

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A day before the meeting, Kharge said the Election Commissioners have "exposed" the working within the poll body by raising concerns over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and changes in Form 6 for enrolling new voters, besides additions and deletions from voter lists and centralised control over the electoral roll database.

He had said the issue is very serious and concerns the survival of democracy in the country and has to be taken up on priority.

"We are going to fight this seriously. This issue concerns the entire country, the existence of our democracy and the survival of our country. That is why we are very serious about this issue," he had said.

The opposition INDIA bloc would also meet on Wednesday to chalk out a joint strategy on the issue and is likely to file another notice for removal of CEC Kumar in Parliament.

Under fire over the red flags raised by two of its commissioners over the SIR process, the EC has asserted that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.

After its first meeting following reports claiming differences between CEC Kumar and the two election commissioners, the poll panel had said in a statement that the letters sent by Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary pertained to an officer on deputation, rather than policy or IT division matters.

The Indian Express has claimed that Sandhu and Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on SIR that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.

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The Congress also said the EC's proposed measures related to SIR are an admission that the exercise has been a "disaster" and asserted that the "piecemeal" steps for deleted or at risk voters will do little to mitigate this "mass disenfranchisement".

Ramping up pressure on Kumar, the Congress on Monday had said the first step in the long road to reclaiming the country's democracy is the resignation of the CEC who is both a front for the "diabolical PM-HM duo" and an affront to the Constitution.