Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and called for the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls to be scrapped and restarted in the state. Speaking on Thursday, Shivakumar said reported disagreements within the three-member poll panel had cast serious doubt on the entire exercise.

The Special Intensive Revision, aimed at updating and cleaning electoral rolls, has become a major political flashpoint. The Congress has argued that the process is being carried out in a manner that risks disenfranchising genuine voters, while the Election Commission has defended it as a routine and necessary exercise to keep voter lists accurate.

Wider row over voter rolls

The controversy is not limited to Karnataka. In Maharashtra, the SIR has been challenged in the Bombay High Court, with petitions seeking the restoration of deleted voters. In Uttarakhand, reports said around 95,000 Form 7 applications were auto-generated after voters were tagged ineligible in the revision, with the draft electoral roll flagging nearly 1.9 million voters for logical discrepancies. Affected electors have been asked to appear for hearings and furnish documents.

In Pune, hearings for the revision are set to begin on September 28, with over 19,000 notices already distributed to voters whose entries need verification.

Opposition unites on EC criticism

Shivakumar’s demand adds to a growing chorus of opposition voices questioning the poll panel’s functioning. Rahul Gandhi has also stepped up his attack on the CEC, citing an Indian Express investigation into reported rifts inside the Commission. The BJP has dismissed these charges, saying Commission decisions are unanimous.

For now, the Election Commission has shown no indication of halting the revision exercise. But with court challenges mounting and political pressure rising, the debate over how India’s voter rolls are revised is set to intensify in the weeks ahead.