Rahul Gandhi Says Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar Will Be Removed and Face Jail Over Alleged Vote Theft

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told a packed rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on November 1 that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar would be removed from office and sent to jail. He described the alleged irregularities in electoral rolls as treason rather than ordinary theft.

Gandhi spoke under a banner reading "Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao." He said the 2024 Lok Sabha election was illegal because the Election Commission later deleted roughly 13.5 crore names through the Special Intensive Revision process. "If these voters were not legitimate, that means the 2024 election was illegal," he stated. He added that he was not making the claim himself; the deletions by the Commission made it so.

He warned that Kumar would not remain in the post. "What I say always turns out to be true," Gandhi told the crowd. "Gyanesh Kumar will be removed from the post of Chief Election Commissioner. Gyanesh Kumar will go to jail." He said the Commission chief, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were losing sleep over the agitation. After Kumar's exit, he said, the opposition would confront Modi and Shah directly. "Legal action will be taken against Modi and Shah."

Other opposition figures joined him on the stage, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and leaders from several other parties. The gathering focused on claims of "vote chori," or vote theft, and on the SIR exercise that the opposition says removed large numbers of legitimate voters.

Gandhi called the alleged act a "rarest of rare" case that qualifies as treason. He said the voice of the people mattered more to him than other considerations and that he would not accept any assault on it. He also linked the claims to broader accusations that the ruling party had captured institutions and concentrated economic power.

The rally followed earlier events in which the INDIA bloc held a symbolic public impeachment of Kumar and passed a resolution listing charges against him. Those charges included allegations of electoral manipulation and failures in the revision of voter lists. Gandhi has said the opposition holds enough evidence to force Kumar out. He has previously told the CEC to "turn approver" and has claimed that messages reached him from the official.

The Election Commission has maintained that its decisions, including those on the SIR, were unanimous. Officials have rejected the opposition's characterization of the process. The government has not responded in detail to the latest jail threat in public statements carried by major outlets on November 2.

The Special Intensive Revision has been under way in multiple states. Opposition parties argue it has led to large-scale deletions without adequate verification. They have demanded changes to the legal protections around election commissioners and have called for Kumar's resignation. The Commission has said it follows established procedures and that objections can be filed through normal channels.

Gandhi's language at the Ramlila Maidan event was direct. He said Modi could not leave even if he wanted to, and that the opposition would not allow it. He framed the sequence as first removing Kumar, then holding the prime minister and home minister to account. The claims rest on the scale of the deletions and on the opposition's interpretation of those numbers as evidence that earlier elections were tainted.

Attendance figures vary. Organizers described a large crowd; some reports put the official ground capacity near 50,000. The event drew national attention because of the explicit prediction that the CEC would face criminal proceedings and because of the presence of multiple opposition chief ministers and party presidents.

Whether any formal legal process follows remains open. No court filing against Kumar on these specific grounds has been reported as of November 2. The opposition has said it will continue to press the issue in Parliament and in public. The Commission continues to operate under its existing leadership. The next scheduled steps in the SIR process in several states will provide further numbers that both sides will cite.