Opposition questions Election Commission’s role as a neutral umpire, slams CEC appointment process excluding CJI

The Opposition and Treasury benches went head to head on the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, as the Lok Sabha discussed electoral reforms for the second day on Wednesday (December 10, 2025).

In a no-holds-barred attack against the government, Congress MP K.C. Venugopal asked why the Chief Justice of India (CJI) had been removed from the process to select the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the other Election Commissioners (ECs).

Also Read: Parliament Winter session Day 9 highlights on December 10, 2025

Referring to a Supreme Court judgement by a bench headed by now-retired judge K.M. Joseph, which said the selection committee should include the Prime Minister, the CJI, and the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha until a law is framed, Mr. Venugopal said the top court’s intention was to ensure free and fair elections.

“You didn’t want the Chief Justice in that committee, that’s why you enacted a law to remove him,” he said. “The idea of an impartial electoral umpire has been replaced now, and it has now openly collapsed under political pressure and has become partisan. The right to vote is not a mercy from the government; it is a fundamental principle of democracy,” he added.

Suspicious voter deletions

The Congress leader also questioned the political neutrality of the Election Commission of India (ECI), citing the poll panel’s failure to stop cash transfers by the Bihar government in the midst of elections. “Why is the ECI acting as an agent of the ruling party?” he asked.

Terming alleged vote chori (theft) as an act against the nation, Mr. Venugopal said: “Instead of preventing it, our ECI is enabling it.”

He also referred to The Hindu’s data analysis of voter deletions from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar under the SIR exercise, which showed an “unusually high proportion” of deaths among younger voters, mostly under the age of 50, across 80 Assembly segments.

Speaking for BLOs

The Congress MP, who informed the House that he is a petitioner against the SIR process in the Supreme Court, also raised the issue of suicides by booth-level officers (BLOs). “Who will reply to the families of the BLOs who died by suicide?” he asked.

Speaking after him, senior BJP leader and former Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said parliamentary norms demanded that Mr. Venugopal should not have spoken in the House as he is a petitioner in the SIR case. “I would urge the Chair to examine the matter and if it deems fit, get his observations deleted from the records,” Mr. Prasad said.

‘No return to ballot papers’

Countering Mr. Venugopal on the issue of appointments, the BJP leader said that when an elected government headed by the Prime Minister can be trusted with the nuclear button, “why can’t it be the case when selecting a good CEC or EC”.

Mr. Prasad also strongly argued against Opposition demands of returning to ballot papers in elections, saying it would mean “going back to the days of booth capturing”. Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav, had demanded a return to ballot papers and stopping the SIR exercise.

BJP MP Kangana Ranaut added that the Prime Minister did not hack electronic voting machines (EVMs), but the hearts of the voters.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi said the SIR exercise was nothing but a “backdoor NRC”, referring to the National Register of Citizens. It was a “malafide exercise” of power to selectively disenfranchise people on the basis of religion, he said.