The Opposition on Wednesday demanded action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, with the Congress seeking his immediate resignation for allegedly “hijacking” the Election Commission and bulldozing dissent within the constitutional body, Mamata Banerjee calling for his removal, and Arvind Kejriwal demanding his arrest and prosecution for sedition.Kejriwal also called for the cancellation of all elections held over the past five years and fresh polls.Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav sought the Supreme Court’s intervention after reports that the other two Election Commissioners had repeatedly raised objections to decisions of the poll panel over the past 10 months.Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Congress Working Committee member Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Kumar had “no right to continue in his position even for a second” and accused him of running the constitutional body as a one-man institution.“Dissent is not disruption; dissent is democracy’s protection,” Singhvi said, arguing that dissenting notes raising inconvenient questions could not be thrown into the “dustbin”.Calling Kumar an “internal bulldozer”, Singhvi alleged that he had overridden and marginalised his own colleagues. He described it as a “double bulldozer” situation, one outside constitutional institutions and another operating within the EC.Citing a 1995 Supreme Court ruling, Singhvi said the CEC was not supreme but “first among equals”. The EC was a multi-member institution where decisions were governed by majority, he said, adding that the other commissioners could not be reduced to “non-functional or ornamental” members.Singhvi claimed Election Commissioner SS Sandhu had written to Kumar 14 times. Among the questions raised, he said, was who had authorised the EC’s appeal involving 14 lakh West Bengal voters when the CEC could not take such a decision unilaterally.He said Sandhu and Election Commissioner Vivek Joshi had also questioned the denial of EC portal access to electoral registration officers (EROs) but received no explanation. The Congress demanded that all written dissent notes be made public.Singhvi also questioned changes concerning Form 6 for first-time voters, saying applicants were being asked whether their parents or grandparents figured in previous electoral rolls. He claimed the EC could not make such a change on its own.On the SIR, Singhvi claimed around 13 crore voters had been removed from electoral rolls. He said 7.8 crore, or 13 per cent, were removed in the first two phases, while 6.18 crore, or 17 per cent, had been deleted in the phase covering 16 states and three UTs. Another 5.43 crore voters had been issued notices seeking additional documents, he said, claiming the final deletion figure could touch 15 crore.Singhvi alleged that the exercise reflected the BJP’s determination to win elections “by hook or by crook” and leave no space for the Opposition where it had won. He also questioned what he described as the “formal opposition” supporting the government in West Bengal.Congress general secretary and MP KC Venugopal separately claimed the two Election Commissioners had written 10 letters to Kumar over electoral rolls. Repeating Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that Kumar was acting as an “agent” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Venugopal alleged a “criminal conspiracy” involving Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Kumar to dismantle the electoral system.He alleged that electoral rolls were controlled by the EC and its IT system in Delhi, allowing names to be added or deleted, and said Goa’s democratic traditions would not accept dictatorship or anti-democratic practices.Mamata demanded Kumar’s removal and criminal action against officials she accused of manipulating the electoral process, including EROs and security personnel. She sought restoration of old voter lists and fresh elections in constituencies where she alleged EVMs had been “captured or hijacked” or voters prevented from casting their ballot.TMC leader Derek O’Brien sought revival of a motion submitted by more than 60 Rajya Sabha MPs five months ago seeking Kumar’s removal.Akhilesh termed the reported 14 objections “extremely serious”, saying questions arose over whether the Election Commissioners could independently discharge their constitutional duties. Alleging that functioning as “puppets of those in power” would constitute a grave constitutional violation, he urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance.CJP spokesperson Saurav Das described Kumar as “enemy number one of the people of India”, linking his criticism to unemployment, paper leaks, poor school infrastructure, adulterated cough syrups and air pollution.He said elections remained the principal democratic means through which people could seek a change of government when it failed to address such problems.Das alleged that this avenue itself was being undermined by attacks on the right to vote and free and fair elections. With young people demanding change in the system, he said, their most fundamental instrument to secure that change — the right to vote — was being “stolen”.