‘Gyanesh Kumar must turn approver’: Rahul Gandhi on Express investigation - The Indian Express

As the Opposition stepped up its demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and planned to move a motion in Parliament for his removal in the wake of The Indian Express report on multiple objections by the two Election Commissioners to SIR-related decisions taken without their knowledge, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi claimed Thursday that “all elections” were being “rigged” in the country.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi said, “Our elections are fundamentally broken.” The “sacred belief” in elections, he said, was dying. “If tomorrow, the BJP sweeps elections, no one will believe it,” he said.

He made these remarks even as Congress sources said the Opposition will soon move a motion in both houses of Parliament to remove Kumar as the CEC.

“The motion is being drafted with legal experts and we will soon submit notices in both Houses on behalf of the joint Opposition,” the sources said.

Referring to The Indian Express report, Gandhi showed video clips of speeches by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in which they say the BJP will remain in power for a long time. “I come from a political family. No political leader can say or make such statements. In India, there is a force called anti-incumbency… It doesn’t spare anybody. Indira Gandhiji won the Bangladesh war. And within a year or two, massive anti-incumbency… The same happens to leader after leader. For some reason, it doesn’t happen to Narendra Modi, Mr Shah, BJP,” he said.

“States swing… We can understand the popularity of a person, the performance of a government. But we can’t understand how anti-incumbency disappears. It doesn’t exist in North Korea… There is no democracy where anti-incumbency doesn’t work. We are looking for answers to where it went here. And we have found answers,” he said.

He said the laws are made by people chosen through votes. “If the vote has been destroyed, then our Constitution has been destroyed. It no longer has power. If our Constitution is destroyed, our laws are illegal, and our institutions are attacked.

The sacred belief in elections is dying. If tomorrow, the BJP sweeps elections, no one will believe it,” he said.

“We have been saying it again and again that there is a problem with the vote. The Election Commission is the institutional protector of this vote. It is their responsibility to protect the vote,” he said, adding, “all elections are being rigged.”

Gandhi recalled how the Prime Minister and the Home Minister bypassed his opinion to elevate Gyanesh Kumar as the CEC. Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi were appointed under a 2023 Act by a selection panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

In March 2024, the Opposition member, Congress’s Adhir Chowdhury, recorded a dissent over the appointment process when Sandhu and Kumar were named Election Commissioners. In February 2025, Gandhi recorded his dissent when Kumar was elevated as CEC.

“We are sitting in a place where we have never been. Our elections are fundamentally broken… And this is the first time in independent India that we are here,” he said.

Demanding Kumar’s resignation, Gandhi said, “This thing you have done is against the Indian nation. This is an attack against the Constitution. There are going to be consequences to this. We are not going to let democracy be destroyed.”

“The two Election Commissioners have done a wise thing. I appreciate it. Mr Kumar should turn approver. That would be an act of nationalism. We know what has happened, and we will reveal it,” he said.

The Prime Minister and Home Minister, he said, should be investigated. “They are at the top of the conspiracy. This is an act against the Indian state and its people. We can’t sit silently,” he said.

Calling a person who attacks the vote a “deshdrohi” (traitor), he said, “I am not saying this lightly. For three years, I have been saying this. I have used facts. The fact is that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister have attacked the democratic architecture of this country.”

He described Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi as “patriots”, and said remaining silent will be “anti-national”.

Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusin... Read More