Former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung has called on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign, alleging that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has left crores of Indians without a vote and damaged the Constitution that civil servants swear to uphold.
Speaking alongside a group of retired civil servants, Najeeb Jung said they had come with a petition asking the CEC to step down so the next election could be conducted fairly. “He should step down gracefully,” he said.
“Our Constitution Has Been Torn Apart”
Jung, a former IAS officer, assumed charge as Delhi’s 20th Lieutenant Governor on 9 July 2013 and resigned on 22 December 2016. He said he and his colleagues had served the government for four decades after taking an oath on the Constitution.
“What pains us today is that our Constitution, which we regard as our Bible, our Gita, our Quran, has been torn apart by one person,” Najeeb Jung said. “Our complaint is not against the government.”
He pointed out that Gyanesh Kumar is 15 years his junior in service. Kumar is a retired 1988-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre and took charge as CEC on 19 February 2025. “It makes us even more ashamed that a colleague from our own service is behaving in this manner,” Jung said.
He alleged that the SIR had been carried out by the Election Commission of India with dishonest intent, and claimed that around 13 crore people have lost their vote as a result. He acknowledged that some of these names may belong to people who have died or moved, but said that even if the real figure were 10 or 12 crore, it would still be intolerable. “There are many countries in the world whose population is less than 13 crore,” he said.
Jung added that the Supreme Court had also said no individual could be deprived of the right to vote. “Not a single person can be deprived of their right to vote. Not even one,” he said.
A Veteran of Six or Seven Elections
Drawing on his own experience, Najeeb Jung said he had conducted six or seven elections as an SDM, as a Collector, and later as Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, when two elections were held, without any complaints.
He described the painstaking work behind a fair poll: house-to-house surveys to prepare detailed voter lists, training polling staff, and sending them in the rain and cold, by bullock cart and truck, to distant villages so that no voter was left out. Polling material, he said, was then locked and guarded in treasuries to prevent any tampering. “For us, it is a very serious matter that so many people have been disenfranchised,” he said.
Jung stressed that the members of the group were retired officers who had never broken the law. “We are civilised people, we are not activists, we do not create chaos on the streets,” he said. They had given prior notice that they wished to hand over a petition, he said, and could not understand why they were stopped by the Delhi Police.
He pointed to former Union Home Secretary G.K Pillai, who had once been responsible for law and order in the country, and said he had been held at police quarters. “We never imagined, when we joined the service, that we would have to see this day,” Jung said.
He also spoke of the country’s youth. “Our young people want jobs, they want to study and rise to good positions. We do not want to take to the streets. I have children, they have children,” he said.
Najeeb Jung ended with an appeal. “Our intention is clear. Fix India’s election system. Correct the voter list and conduct the next election so that all the people are happy and not a single person is left without a vote.”
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