At a protest that drew sharp political lines around India's constitutional architecture, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday, September 26, 2026, called for the immediate dismissal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and demanded that criminal proceedings be initiated against him — framing the row not as ordinary politics but as a question of democracy's survival.

Speaking at a demonstration organised by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) at Freedom Park, Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah did not mince words. 'The Election Commission is a constitutional body,' he said. 'If it does not function independently, democracy itself will not survive. This is a question of democracy's existence.'

Fourteen Dissents Inside the Commission

The flashpoint for the protest, Siddaramaiah argued, is a pattern of internal dissent inside the Election Commission of India that has now become public. Citing media reports, he claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had, over the past ten months, filed written objections to Commission decisions and orders on at least 14 separate occasions. Some of those objections, he stated, concern voter additions, deletions of names from electoral rolls, changes to Form-6, and voter data management — the very mechanisms that determine who gets to vote.

The research bloc flags these specific counts and the names of the dissenting commissioners as unverified from established public record. Siddaramaiah, however, presented them as established fact at the protest and called them 'deeply serious' for a constitutional institution. 'Such developments should not happen inside a constitutional body,' he said.

Rahul Gandhi's Allegations and Siddaramaiah's Solidarity

The Karnataka CM explicitly aligned himself with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has alleged large-scale electoral roll manipulation since the BJP came to power at the Centre and reportedly wrote to the Election Commission on the matter in 2025. When Gandhi raised allegations of vote theft, Siddaramaiah noted, the CEC had reportedly suggested Gandhi should apologise to the public — a response the CM called inappropriate for a constitutional functionary. 'I stand with Rahul Gandhi and support this fight,' Siddaramaiah declared.

Article 324, the President, and the Constitutional Argument

Siddaramaiah grounded his demand in constitutional text. Article 324 of the Indian Constitution, he said, provides that the Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only in the same manner and on the same grounds as a Supreme Court judge — that is, through a parliamentary address process. While that makes unilateral executive dismissal constitutionally impossible, he argued that the President of India — as guardian of the Constitution — must intervene and initiate action where Commissioners are found to have acted contrary to their constitutional duty.

Invoking Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who designed the ECI as a body loyal solely to the Constitution, Siddaramaiah said the Commission 'must not dance to the tune of the Central government' and cannot owe allegiance to any party or regime. 'Babasaheb gave us a constitution. The Election Commission must be faithful only to that constitution.'

The Modi Retirement Remark and the Political Stakes

In one of his sharpest lines, Siddaramaiah noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned 75 — the age at which others in public life are asked to step aside — yet Modi, he alleged, enjoys an exception. He went further, asserting that Modi 'came to power through vote theft' and therefore lacks the moral right to remain in office 'for even a minute'. These are opposition political allegations, not established legal findings.

The broader opposition argument — that successive BJP-era Election Commissions have been pliant rather than independent — has been a recurring Congress charge since 2014, and this protest at Freedom Park is the latest escalation of that campaign.

The Election Commission has not, as of this writing, issued a public response to Siddaramaiah's demands. Whether opposition parties pursue Supreme Court petitions on ECI functioning, or whether the President's office acknowledges the demand, will determine whether this protest is the beginning of a sustained institutional confrontation — or a powerful political salvo ahead of the next electoral cycle.