Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday, 24 September 2026 launched a sharp attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of functioning as an 'agent of the Central government' and operating the poll body like a 'mafia outfit.' Raut announced that the Opposition would move an impeachment motion against Kumar in both Houses of Parliament, and demanded that he be booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

What Raut Alleged

At the centre of Raut's broadside were recent changes to Voter Registration Form 6, which he described as 'unilateral.' He questioned the intent behind new fields that, according to him, probe voters' ancestral lineage going back several generations.

'Gyanesh Kumar has altered Form 6 to ask whether voters' grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers were alive. We ask him in return — do you even know who your own ancestors were?' Raut charged.

Raut further alleged that Kumar acts 'on the orders of his boss, Union Home Minister Amit Shah,' calling him the Home Minister's 'Chhota Shakeel — a political sharpshooter killing democracy.' He declared the Election Commission a 'slaughterhouse of democracy' and said the Opposition would collect signatures from MPs across party lines to initiate formal impeachment proceedings.

Allegations of Electoral Fraud

Raut alleged that recent election victories for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal were achieved through voter fraud allegedly orchestrated by Gyanesh Kumar. He reiterated a joint demand by Opposition leaders — Uddhav Thackeray, Mamata Banerjee, and Tejashwi Yadav — to scrap those election results and hold fresh polls.

Raut also called on opposition parties to 'hit the streets' to shut down what he described as an organised vote-stealing racket, labelling Kumar and his handlers 'Enemy Number One of the nation.'

Uddhav Thackeray's Parallel Demands

A day earlier, on Wednesday, 23 September, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had demanded the immediate arrest of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of being the 'kingpin of a gang' that is destroying democracy and engineering splits in political parties at the behest of the Centre.

Thackeray also demanded the scrapping of assembly elections in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal and called for fresh polls. He commended Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu for what he called internal whistleblowing. 'The internal whistleblowing by Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu has exposed how arbitrary this administration was,' Thackeray stated.

Thackeray further said, 'Today, the unmasked face of Gyanesh Kumar stands exposed before the nation. He is the principal mastermind of the gang that breaks political parties, steals party names, and murders democracy. He must be thrown into prison immediately.'

Context and Background

The escalating Opposition offensive against the Election Commission follows a period of intense scrutiny of the poll body. Critics argue that changes to electoral roll processes, combined with the ECI's handling of party symbol disputes — including the one involving Shiv Sena (UBT) itself — have deepened mistrust among non-BJP parties. Notably, the demand for impeachment of a sitting Chief Election Commissioner is an extraordinary constitutional step that would require a majority in Parliament and has never succeeded in India's post-independence history.

The BJP and the Election Commission have not yet issued a public response to the specific allegations made on 24 September. How the broader Opposition consolidates around the impeachment demand will be closely watched in the coming days.