Manipulation of electoral rolls: India poll chief under pressure

NEW DELHI: Opposition groups are demanding the resignation of India’s election chief Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of widespread voter-list manipulation during the verification of the country’s one billion voters.

The calls come barely a month after US President Donald Trump praised Kumar, a former bureaucrat who took over as India’s chief election commissioner in February 2025, for insisting that Indian voters prove their identity with photo ID, unlike in the US.

Criticism of Kumar, who has denied all allegations, soared last week when the Indian Express newspaper said his two de facto deputies had raised at least 14 formal objections over 10 months to decisions related to voter rolls, registration procedures and the poll body’s digital systems.

Political analysts estimate that 130 million names have been struck off the voter list since the latest round of revisions began last year. Nearly 650 million people voted in the last national election in 2024.

The opposition has long claimed that the government is trying to fix voter lists to its advantage and was quick to repeat the allegations following the Indian Express report. Government ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and the poll body have all denied the charges.