Telangana Congress State-wide protests against ECI’s SIR handling on September 28

Telangana Congress president demands ECI publish State-wise and constituency-wise details of names deleted from draft electoral rolls during SIR process,reasons for such deletions, number of objections received and other details

Published - September 25, 2026 12:07 pm IST - HYDERABAD

Telangana Congress leaders and workers take out a protest march from the Ambedkar Statue at Tank Bund to the Election Commission office in Hyderabad against the alleged misuse of power by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in Hyderabad on Thursday (September 24, 2026) | Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud said the Congress would organise protests at all district headquarters across the State on Monday (September 28, 2026) against what he described as the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) mishandling of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

Mr. Goud demanded that the ECI publicly clarify the objections reportedly raised by two Election Commissioners over various aspects of the SIR of electoral rolls. He said the Commission’s functioning should be transparent and accountable.

Referring to reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on 14 occasions over the past 10 months on issues relating to electoral roll revision, he said the objections covered registration of new voters, deletion of names, maintenance of voter databases and electoral roll software, and lakhs of people in Telangana faced these problems.

The TPCC president said the reported objections to the changes proposed in Form 6, used by citizens seeking voter registration, required a detailed explanation from the ECI. He wanted the Commission to clarify the legal basis for the changes and explain the process followed in making them.

He also sought details on the role and responsibility of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in making changes to voter data. “Who changed the data, when, for what reason and with whose approval” should be ascertainable through an audit trail, he said.

The TPCC chief also demanded that the ECI publish State-wise and constituency-wise details of names deleted from draft electoral rolls during the SIR process, the reasons for such deletions, the number of objections received, and the number of names subsequently restored.

He said that Congress had been raising concerns over the functioning of the ECI and claimed that the reported objections from two Election Commissioners had strengthened the party’s concerns.

Deep rot: On the Election Commission of India’s functioning during its SIR

ECI should give details of decisions taken and whether they had majority backing: former Election Commissioners

Opposition calls for CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s removal after report on Election Commissioners’ dissent

Published - September 25, 2026 12:07 pm IST

Election Commission of India / Telangana / Indian National Congress

Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.