CJP threatens Jantar Mantar 2.0 if CEC doesn’t resign within 48 hours
New Delhi: Launching a no-holds-barred attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR row, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked the CEC to immediately resign and turn an “approver”.
Addressing a press conference at Indira Bhawan, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha alleged that India’s elections have been fundamentally broken, vote destroyed and institutions captured by Modi and Shah, who would be investigated for their conspiracy to “steal elections” and for what they have done to the country.
He claimed Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have endorsed to what he has been saying for over a year that the country’s electoral system has been “destroyed”, after revelations came out in a media report that they red-flagged issues of deletion and addition of votes through special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) also demanded the resignation of the CEC for “undermining” voter rights, and warned of a nationwide agitation, including “Jantar Mantar 2.0”, if he does not step down within 48 hours.
Gandhi said that Sandhu and Joshi have done a good thing by accepting in a way that “vote chori” is happening and by pointing out “flaws”.
He advised Kumar to “think seriously and turn an approver”, saying it will be “considered an act of nationalism”.
Gandhi claimed further revelations will come out soon on the problems in the system. He also claimed that the Opposition stood united on this issue and the Congress would work together to highlight the ‘vote chori’ issue among the people.
“This is not just an attack on the vote, this is a fundamental attack on the idea of India and this is being carried out by the top leadership of this country,” he said.
He alleged all elections including those to several assemblies were “rigged” and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls were “completely fake” and the EC has lost its credibility.
“This is an attack on the Constitution and the country’s legal structure. You were supposed to ensure that the vote was protected… There are going to be consequences to this. We are not going to let democracy be destroyed and sit silent. Those responsible will be punished,” Gandhi said.
“The Prime Minister and Amit Shah are both going to be investigated for what has been done. Without any doubt, both the PM and Amit Shah, are at the top of this conspiracy and they are going to be investigated for what they have done to this country,” Gandhi said, adding that this is an act against the Indian state and its people.
“The fact is that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister of this country have attacked and destroyed the democratic architecture of India,” Gandhi said, adding that no matter what they will not let this “crime” go unanswered.
“From ‘vote chori’, comes ‘kanoon chori’ and from that comes ‘sanstha chori’,” he said.
The former Congress chief also showed on screen pictures of Modi, Shah, industrialist Gautam Adani, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, national security advisor Ajit Doval, principal secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra and CEC Kumar under the header “conspirators”.
He also showed photographs of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Piyush Goyal, among others, under the header “pawns”.
Meanwhile, speaking at a press conference here, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, flanked by its co-convener Saurav Das and spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka, alleged that the electoral process had been “rigged” and the right to vote was being taken away from citizens.
“If Gyanesh Kumar does not resign within 48 hours, we will start a nationwide protest, before coming for a protest in Delhi,” Dipke said, adding that if the CEC doesn’t resign, “Jantar Mantar 2.0 will definitely happen”.
The CJP said if CEC Kumar does not resign, the party would launch a nationwide agitation followed by an indefinite sit-in in Delhi.
Poll panel says ECINet is decentralised
New Delhi: The Election Commission’s ECINet is a “decentralised” platform where statutory functions can only be performed by the designated election officials and not by anyone at the poll body’s headquarters, EC officials said on Thursday, citing official documents.
The assertion comes amid questions over the functioning of the EC’s digital systems following an Indian Express report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised concerns over the “gradual centralisation” of the electoral roll database and the access available to officials in states.
Cybersecurity for the platform is, however, provided centrally by the EC, the poll panel officials said.
The officials said booth level officers (BLOs), assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs), electoral registration officers (EROs), district election officers (DEOs) and chief electoral officers (CEOs) perform their respective statutory functions on ECINet using unique IDs and passwords.
“No one else can perform their statutory function on ECINet, including any other officer of the ECI,” an official said.
Cybersecurity for the platform is, however, provided centrally by the EC. Officials said this was necessary to protect it from malicious attacks, citing around 68 lakh such attempts on counting day during the Assembly elections earlier this year.
ERONET, the EC’s earlier electoral roll management system, has now been integrated into the broader ECINet platform. Official documents refer to it as the “Electoral Roll module of ECINET Portal (previously ERONET)”.
The issue has come into focus following reports that EROs in Goa found 97 voters eligible during the special intensive revision (SIR) but were unable to restore their names as the software did not provide a rollback option.
Separately, EC officials also rejected questions over the legality of an additional declaration sought from new voters along with Form 6 during the SIR.
Citing official documents, they said the declaration requirement was part of the June 24, 2025 Bihar SIR order and had the unanimous approval of the commission.
The same provision was included in subsequent SIR orders covering 12 states and Union territories in October 2025, and 19 states and UTs in May 2026, again with unanimous approval.
The officials maintained that Form 6 itself was not amended and that an additional declaration was sought along with it.
The clarification follows the newspaper report saying Joshi had recorded that Form 6 could not be changed through SIR instructions without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, a view with which Sandhu concurred. Sandhu subsequently described the reported change as “unauthorised and illegal”.
