Summary: The dubious Indian Express report which alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar ran the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls as a 'one-man show', overriding objections from Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi has fueled the Rahul Gandhi/CJP led witch-hunt against the ECI and CEC. In this piece, the author argues that the report relied on internal file notes and technical suggestions that are normal parts of deliberation, not formal decisions. The piece points to the Election Commission's October 26, 2026 counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court, which says the key SIR orders were unanimous. It also argues that the report's draft-roll deletion figures were presented as evidence of partisan exclusion and fed the 'vote-chori' rhetoric of Rahul Gandhi.
Why it matters: The dispute over the Election Commission’s conduct is a case of media narrative outrunning facts. It shows how the left-liberal intelligentsia selectively vilifies institutions in pursuit of an ideological agenda in which the BJP, RSS and Hindutva are the eternal enemy. The editorial class and academic ideologues who supply narrative fuel to the Congress-led Opposition belong to the same Lutyens’ class. They act in coordination with it, and with bureaucrats, judges, lawyers and other members of their Nehruvian old boys’ club.
“Opinion | The Great Witch-Hunt Against ECI: How Facts Were Replaced By Half-Truths” — News18, 30 Oct 2026
The September 23, 2026 “investigation" in a mainstream publication portrayed Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as running a one-man show during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised at least 14 written objections over 10 months to decisions taken without their knowledge, some labelled “unauthorised and illegal".
These covered Form 6, voter database access, deletions/restorations, and related processes, with escalation to the Cabinet Secretary. The report framed this as an unprecedented rupture, linking it to mass deletions of roughly 13 crore names from draft rolls across multiple States and Union Territories and alleging process violations favouring the ruling dispensation. The scale of draft-roll deletions was promptly presented by the reporter as evidence of partisan exclusion. This, in turn, gave the baseless “vote-chori" rhetoric by Rahul Gandhi, a fresh lease of life.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) responded immediately that differing views are a normal part of institutional deliberation and that all major decisions of the past year, including on SIR, were unanimous. On October 26, 2026, the ECI filed a detailed counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court (in response to related petitions). Approved unanimously by all three members — CEC Gyanesh Kumar and the two ECs, it directly addressed the web of falsehoods, set off by the random report, by the publication. The joint affidavit stated that the allegations were based on a single newspaper report (not legal evidence), clarified decision-making, confirmed key SIR orders were unanimous, and rejected claims of statutory violations…
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