DMK Demands Sacking of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and Return to Paper Ballots: Has BJP Formed Govt With Vote Stealing?

In an aggressive political offensive challenging the foundational integrity of national polls, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has formally demanded the sacking of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, the total revocation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, and the discontinuation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in favor of traditional paper ballots. The demands formed the core of four hard-hitting resolutions passed during a high-level meeting of DMK Members of Parliament convened at the party's headquarters, Anna Arivalayam in Chennai, and chaired by party president M.K. Stalin.

The resolution charged the top leadership of the Election Commission of India (ECI) with compromising constitutional neutrality, alleging that Gyanesh Kumar rushed through the controversial SIR drive across states like Bihar and Tamil Nadu to engineer the arbitrary exclusion of millions of legitimate voters. The DMK announced that a delegation of its parliamentarians will formally submit a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu, petitioning for an independent judicial inquiry into the administrative conduct and unilateral decisions of the Chief Election Commissioner. The party insisted that until comprehensive audits restore credibility to voter lists, future elections must be conducted strictly using pre-revision electoral rolls alongside 100 percent counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips or physical ballots.

Backing student organizations and civil rights coalitions protesting nationwide against vote deletions, the DMK condemned the Union government's heavy-handed suppression of peaceful assemblies. Stalin sharply criticized the preventive detention of student leaders and youth activists, characterizing police action as an authoritarian attempt to shield election officials from democratic scrutiny. By aligning its legislative machinery with ongoing street mobilizations, the regional heavyweight has elevated the electoral integrity campaign from a regulatory dispute into an existential question over executive legitimacy.

The confrontation reinforces mounting public suspicion across civil society and opposition ranks regarding the manner in which election outcomes are managed. Critics argue that persistent administrative resistance to machine audits, coupled with non-transparent roll deletions and the selective use of state machinery to silence dissent, points to a deliberate system engineered to insulate the ruling establishment from anti-incumbency. With state parties now openly questioning whether recent electoral mandates were secured through institutional capture and systematic roll manipulation, the DMK's resolution poses a direct challenge to the credibility of the entire electoral framework.