Resignation of CEC demanded
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 23 2026: Alleging electoral fraud, Peoples Against SIR Manipur, a collective formed by different political parties and civil society organisations, has demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

Addressing a press conference at Irabot Bhavan today, Communist Party of India (CPI) Manipur State Council leader L Sotinkumar claimed that the CEC was actively involved in electoral fraud by manipulating the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to help the ruling BJP retain power.

The Left leader alleged that more than 13 crore genuine voters have been arbitrarily deleted from electoral rolls across the country under the guise of the SIR exercise.

Saying that the scale of the voter exclusions is unprecedented, Sotinkumar stated that disenfranchising bona fide citizens is a direct assault on the democratic rights of the people.

Alleging that BJP won the recent West Bengal Assembly elections through electoral fraud, he claimed that CEC is protected by the Prime Minister.

Elaborating on the scale of voter deletions, Kshetrimayum Santa, co-convenor of the collective, claimed that the SIR exercise resulted in the removal of around 7.5 per cent of the total voters in Manipur, nearly 30 per cent in Maharashtra, and about 33 per cent in New Delhi, besides massive deletions in several other States.

He also criticized the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manipur, over the handling of an official meeting regarding Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) .

According to Santa, a meeting of political parties on EVMs was initially scheduled at Lamphel yesterday.

He claimed that representatives of the INDIA Bloc arrived at the CEO's office in the morning, only to be informed that the meeting had been rescheduled for 1:30 pm .

However, the meeting failed to start even by 3:00 pm and the CEO's office offered no explanation as to whether the session would be conducted at all.

Alleging that the INDIA Bloc members subsequently walked out and boycotted the proceedings, he claimed that several news outlets, however, published reports that a meeting on EVMs had been held in the presence of representatives from various political parties.

He condemned the alleged conduct of the CEO, Manipur.

The press briefing was also attended by several representatives of INDIA Bloc.

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