'Invisible Hand, Vote Chori': Congress Leads Attack On Poll Body After 'Dissent' Report

The Congress party today alleged the Election Commission of India (ECI) may not be working as an independent body anymore, referring to a report by the Indian Express that said two election commissioners objected to several decisions of the ECI taken allegedly without their knowledge.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the charge with his opening attack that set the path open for the rest of the Opposition party's leaders to punch through.

"Vote chori is a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on our constitution. The BJP, RSS and EC who organised it have committed an act of treason. Justice will be served," he wrote in a post on X.

The Congress MP also shared a 15-second video in which he is seen telling the Election Commission and its officers that what they have been doing was wrong. "Your time will come. You cannot get away," he said.

Vote chori is a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on our constitution.

The BJP, RSS and EC who organised it have committed an act of treason.

Justice will be served. pic.twitter.com/30kX06CBiH

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 23, 2026

The Congress and other Opposition parties have been alleging that the ECI's voter roll cleanup exercise, Special Intensive Revision (SIR), was a sophisticated process to exclude voters for the BJP's gain.

This latest report on the ECI has opened a new and much more volatile front in the long battle between the Opposition and the ruling BJP over the SIR, to the extent that Congress leader Manish Tewari today alleged there could be an "invisible hand" running the ECI.

"If the ostensible facts as reported by Indian Express are correct then it seems to suggest that there is an 'invisible hand' running the ECI. If rules were not allegedly followed and decisions were taken that were not unanimous or by majority then all the decisions of ECI are per se arbitrary and capricious if not completely illegal," Tewari said.

"This is perhaps a fit case for seriously considering an impeachment proceeding but more importantly the fundamental question is as to how will the credibility of ECI be ever resurrected," he added.

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien's post on X on the issue also referred to calls for an impeachment of the chief election commissioner. He recalled a bid by over 60 MPs in the Rajya Sabha asking the Chairman to move a motion for removing Gyanesh Kumar.

"After the big news break today that the two election commissioners objected to many of CEC's actions, it's time to bring out the RS motion today. Impeach CEC to save democracy," Derek O'Brien said.

The national rollout of the SIR exercise has been under the supervision of all the three top officers of the ECI - Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

According to the report, Sandhu and Joshi formally objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months - four times in a single day - to decisions taken and orders issued without their knowledge.

ECI sources told NDTV no election commissioner gave any dissent. They had only made some observations which the poll body looked into, sources said.