Keralam Home Minister Chennithala alleges EC "fraud" during 2024 Maharashtra polls, says SIR in Keralam was "alright"

Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Friday alleged that the Congress and its allies lost the Maharashtra assembly election due to "indulgence" by the Election Commission, calling it "a fraud on election" and demanding the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.

Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Friday alleged that the Congress and its allies lost the Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 due to "indulgence" by the Election Commission, calling it a "fraud on election" and demanding the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. "I was in charge of Maharashtra. The Maharashtra assembly election was defeated by the Congress and allies because of indulgence by the Election Commission. It was a fraud on election. The two election commissioners raised objections 14 times, but the Chief Election Commissioner did not take the issue into account. The Election Commission lost its credibility. It is high time for Gyanesh Kumar to resign from the Chief Election Commissioner's position," Chennithala told reporters.

His remarks came as Congress units staged agitations across multiple states including Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur over the CEC's resignation demand. The protests across states come amid a political row over the SIR exercise following an Indian Express report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months concerning decisions and procedures related to electoral rolls and database access.

The Election Commission has rejected the characterisation of these objections as institutional dissent, saying operational queries, internal feedback and administrative suggestions are part of the normal functioning of a multi-member constitutional body. The ECI has maintained that all final decisions concerning SIR were unanimous. BJP leader CR Kesavan earlier pushed back at the Congress, pointing to Chennithala's own past comments on the SIR process. Kesavan said Rahul Gandhi's claim that "wherever there is SIR there is vote theft" was contradicted by Chennithala's reaction after the Keralam Assembly Election results were announced on May 4.

"Rahul Gandhi ridiculously claims that wherever there is SIR there is vote theft. On May 4, 2026, when the Kerala Assembly election results were announced, the current Congress Home Minister of Kerala, Mr. Ramesh Chennithala, lauded and appreciated how the SIR process had helped the Congress win by removing bogus votes from the electoral rolls," Kesavan said in a post on X. Responding to the claim, Chennithala said Keralam's outcome was different because of the "vigilance" of political parties in the state.

"In Kerala, it was alright because we were very vigilant up to the lower level, and Kerala is an exception because this kind of fraud will not happen because all political parties are all very vigilant here," he said. Earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday also targeted CEC Gyanesh Kumar and demanded his removal, alleging that the poll body had acted against his party in the past in Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024.

"For the past several days, there has been a demand to remove the Election Commission's Gyanesh Kumar. The real face of Gyanesh Kumar has come before the country," Thackeray said. "The Election Commission gave the Shiv Sena symbol and name to the traitors. Around 40 lakh voters' names were added to the list before the elections and removed after the elections," he alleged.

Thackeray further alleged that such actions were being taken due to a "hunger for power" and called for elections in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka to be conducted through ballot papers again. The Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 witnessed a decisive victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance, securing a landslide win with 235 seats. The results marked a significant milestone for the BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party with 132 seats. The Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party also made notable gains, with 57 and 41 seats, respectively. (ANI)