Bhubaneswar: On Friday, BJD president Naveen Patnaik called for the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and advocated for a re-evaluation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Patnaik’s comments followed a newspaper report highlighting internal conflicts among the three-member Election Commission regarding various decisions and guidelines related to the electoral roll revision, including the addition and removal of voter names, modifications to forms for new voters, and access to voter information.

“Due to the significant disagreements between the election commissioners and the chief election commissioner, the CEC should resign immediately, and the entire SIR process must be thoroughly reassessed,” Patnaik stated to reporters outside the Assembly.

The opposition leader in Odisha mentioned that the BJD has consistently opposed the SIR process since its inception.

Previously, the party raised concerns about numerous irregularities in the SIR procedure in the state, alleging that more than 2.5 million eligible voters had been removed from the electoral rolls.