Gyanesh Kumar will soon be forced to step down, says K.C. Venugopal

Amid the Opposition’s intensifying protests over alleged electoral malpractice, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal has said that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar would soon be forced to step down.

Inaugurating the ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ (Save the Vote, Save the Nation) rally organised by the Kozhikode District Congress Committee at Kozhikode beach on Saturday (November 7, 2026), Mr. Venugopal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of using the Election Commission of India to undermine the Congress and manipulate electoral outcomes.

Referring to the Haryana Assembly election, in which the Congress lost by a margin of 0.4 percentage points despite predictions of a party wave, he said a booth-level investigation led by Rahul Gandhi had exposed large-scale vote theft.

Similar manipulation had allegedly taken place in Maharashtra and Karnataka, he claimed. Mr. Venugopal levelled serious allegations against Mr. Kumar, accusing him of corruption during his earlier stints as Ernakulam District Collector and Public Works department Secretary in Kerala.

He also alleged that Mr. Kumar had been entrusted with overseeing the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir by Mr. Shah. Criticising the 2023 amendment to the law governing the appointment of election commissioners, he alleged that the Modi government had granted them legal immunity even greater than that enjoyed by the President, Prime Minister, and Chief Justice of India.

He also accused the government of removing the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee and replacing him with a Union Minister, despite a Supreme Court judgment providing for the CJI's inclusion. Claiming that 13.32 crore voters had been deleted from electoral rolls across the country, Mr.

Venugopal said the exercise threatened not only citizens’ voting rights but also their access to government benefits and entitlements, as voter ID cards were increasingly being linked to welfare provisions. He said the protests in Delhi had unsettled the Prime Minister and the CEC, and warned that any attempt to suppress the agitation using the police or armed forces would invite a strong response from the Opposition.

The movement was not merely about electoral victories or making Mr. Gandhi Prime Minister in 2029, but a fight to safeguard every Indian citizen's right to vote and democratic freedoms, he added.