New Delhi: Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi has alleged that sitting CEC Gyanesh Kumar, who is in the eye of a political storm at the moment, was found to be “unfit” for key administerial posts before being appointed as the polls body chief .“He was not even found fit for the Additional Secretary panel. Later he was also found unfit for the Secretary panel,” Quraishi alleged in an interview with veteran journalist Pervaiz Alam.Pointing to Kumar’s close relations with Union home minister Amit Shah, Quraishi said, “What is known about this gentleman [Kumar] is that he was very close to Amit Shah. Extremely close – he worked under him in the Home Ministry. He was one of the architects of the removal of Article 370 in Kashmir… Besides that, when the Ram Mandir Trust was being formed, he was the one who set it up.”Quraishi said that despite being found unfit for the secretary-level positions, he was appointed as the CEC because the panel that picked him consisted of the prime minister and his “companion” Shah.“…Because he had worked so closely with Amit Shah… pressure was applied… and he was made Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation, of which Amit Shah was the minister. In 2023, the selection of the Chief Election Commissioner had to be made… under the new Act the government called three people to consider the names. One was Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He nominated Amit Shah – the person closest to him, his companion – and the Leader of the Opposition. And Gyanesh Kumar was selected.”Kumar has drawn ire over the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls conducted under his watch, which has resulted in the deletion of over 13 crore electors across the country. The exercise is being seen as mass disenfranchisement and a violation of the Election Commission of India’s mandate to ensure that all eligible voters attain the right to vote. Last month, an Indian Express investigation had exposed how Kumar took unilateral decisions without factoring in concerns raised by election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.Massive protests demanding Kumar’s removal and the roll back of the SIR then took over the country, with New Delhi as the epicentre of the movement. The Modi government’s high-handed response to the citizens’ movement, brutal repression of dissent and stringent police action have been on display for the past few weeks as the demand for Kumar’s resignation refuses to die down.