The Election Commission is now the Opposition's prime target. After The Indian Express revealed that two of three Election Commissioners objected 14 times in 10 months to decisions by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the political temperature shot up.
Congress called it "vote chori" — a crime against people, a direct attack on the Constitution. Rahul Gandhi demanded fresh polls in Bihar and West Bengal and the CEC's removal. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, speaking in Wayanad, said "Your vote is a crime against our Constitution" and accused the BJP and EC of working together.
TMC chief Mamata Banerjee went further: "Arrest CEC." She sought repoll in West Bengal and called the SIR exercise "state-sponsored poll manipulation." AAP demanded cancellation of recent elections and fresh polls, calling the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) the "biggest scam."
The CPI(M)'s John Brittas wrote to the President seeking "urgent intervention" and a pause to SIR. Uddhav Thackeray said, "This gang has been involved in splitting parties, stealing democracy, and its kingpin is Gyanesh Kumar."
BJP defended the Commission as "functioning in a democratic manner."
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court said independence is not enough; the ECI must also appear to be independent. It split on whether the 2023 law removing the CJI from the selection panel for ECs should go to a larger bench, with Justice Dipankar Datta saying the exclusion of the Prime Minister's inclusion "fails to provide weight that a neutral selector could" and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma disagreeing.
At the heart is the ERONet voter database and Form 6 changes. If people lose trust in elections, as J&K CM Omar Abdullah said, "what is left in democracy?"