Kolkata: Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) R. S. Gopalan on September 30 sought voluntary retirement, citing personal reasons, despite having nearly 21 months of service left. His request comes at a time when protests demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation have erupted across the country.As of October 6, however, there has been no official approval from the competent authority regarding Gopalan’s request for voluntary retirement.The sudden development has triggered widespread discussion across Odisha. This is reportedly the first instance in the country where a serving CEO of a state is seeking voluntary retirement.Local people of Dhamnagar march and submit a memorandum demanding against the ERO of Dhamnagar. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Questions have increasingly been raised over the EC’s role since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls began in several states. Opposition parties and social organisations have accused the EC of acting arbitrarily and alleged that the exercise is being conducted in a manner that could politically benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Protests and public demonstrations have been held in several parts of the country.According to the allegations cited in the report, around 13 crore voters have so far been excluded from electoral rolls during the SIR process across the country, including many genuine voters. In West Bengal, the Assembly election was conducted after around 27 lakh voters were allegedly left out of the rolls. Similar allegations have also emerged from Bihar.Odisha, too, has witnessed widespread public discontent over the SIR. People in several parts of the state have continued to protest against the Election Commission’s actions.Residents of Ward 25, 26 in Bhadrak Assembly constituency show the logical discrepancy notice they received earlier. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Muslim voters among those affectedIn several Assembly constituencies, including Bhadrak, Dhamnagar, Jharsuguda, Cuttack- Barabati and Rairakhol, a large number of minority Muslim voters were allegedly deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.Following sustained protests by local residents, some of these deletions were reportedly reversed. However, after the publication of the final electoral roll, around 27.5 lakh voters were found to have been excluded in Odisha. Of these, around 8.32 lakh were classified as deceased voters.Opposition leaders and activists have alleged that a significant portion of the remaining excluded voters are genuine electors. “We continued our movement after witnessing the systematic exclusion of genuine voters. As a result, we were able to prevent the deletion of genuine voters in several places, though we could not do so everywhere. The BJP pressured the EC to carry out this exercise. In places where we managed to stop the deletions, the BJP became angry with the State Election Commission and made strong attempts to have those voters removed’’ BJD ( Biju Janata Party) state leader Bijaya Nayak said to The Wire.This has also raised a larger question across Odisha: Was there an unseen political hand behind R.S. Gopalan’s decision to seek voluntary retirement?What happened during Odisha’s SIR exercise?On May 14, 2026, the SIR notification was issued in Odisha. Everyone whose name appeared on the electoral rolls between 2002 and 2005 was supposed to receive an enumeration form. But even before the SIR exercise began, around seven lakh people in Odisha had not received these forms, said Nayak. According to Nayak, Odisha had around 3.40 crore voters mapped. Some voters from the earlier electoral roll had died. But, Nayak claimed that around seven lakh were genuine voters who were not allowed to be reached by Booth Level Officers (BLO). “This was done with a specific purpose from the beginning,’’ he alleged.Residents of Ward 25, 26 in Bhadrak Assembly constituency show the logical discrepancy notice they received earlier. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Subsequently, voters in several parts of Odisha began receiving notices citing “logical discrepancies’’. The official notices reportedly stated that the concerned voters were either no longer living in the area or had died.But when genuine voters approached BLOs after receiving the notices, they allegedly discovered that Form 7 applications had been submitted in their names, claiming that they did not exist at their addresses.“The voters then carried out their own inquiry. According to the allegations, the false information had been submitted from BJP offices using the same computer system and forwarded to the relevant authorities.“The highest number of such false submissions in Odisha was made in the Bhadrak Assembly constituency, particularly in Bhadrak Municipality,” said Sheikh Nasiruddin, resident of Bhadra and state leader of the minority cell of the BJD.In Bhadrak, hundreds received ‘ logical discrepancy’ notices.Bhadrak municipality has 30 wards, 15 of which have a Muslim majority. Of its 140 polling booths, 54 reportedly have Muslim voters accounting for nearly 95% of the electorate.According to the report, between 300-400 genuine voters in each of these 54 booths received notices citing ‘logical discrepancy’“We have been voting here for many years. The BLO came to our homes, verified everything and told us that everything was in order. We submitted the enumeration forms. Why, then, did we get a notice again? And those who filled up Form 7 seeking our deletion do not even live here. How could people living so far away know who lives here and who does not?’’ some residents asked. Residents of Ward 25, 26 in Bhadrak Assembly constituency show the logical discrepancy notice they received earlier. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.When The Wire visited several wards of the Bhadrak Assembly constituency 1.5 months earlier, residents including Saheda Bibi, Fatema Bibi of Bankamohalla in ward 26, and Mir Alamgir, spoke about similar experiences.Residents of Mira Mohalla in ward number 25, Sayed Mohammad Ali and Kaniza Bibi, also described similar experiences. Several residents said they fell ill after receiving the notices.Kamrun Bibi, a resident of the area, had reportedly been seriously ill and undergoing prolonged treatment at Cuttack Hospital. A similar situation was reported in the case of Sheikh Samsuddin, an elderly resident of the area, after a notice arrived in the name of his son, Sheikh Adam.Nearly 4,000 Muslim voters allegedly targeted in DhamnagarAccording to local resident Fakhuruddin Ali Ahamed, attempts were allegedly made to delete the names of around 4,000 genuine minority Muslim voters by filling Form 7 applications against them.The allegation against Dhamnagar ERO Santosh Kumar Nayak was particularly serious. He allegedly obtained the OTP sent to BLOs’ mobile phones and used them to fill out and submit Form 7 applications online in the names of these voters.Form 7 applications, however, cannot ordinarily be submitted online in this manner and are required to be submitted directly, according to the report. The allegation is that the ERO himself carried out the online process. Residents alleged that the exercise was carried out at the direction of the ruling BJP.The allegations do not end there. BLOs in both Bhadrak and Dhamnagar repeatedly informed election officials that they had personally visited voters’ homes, collected their information and submitted the required forms.The people described in the notices as non- existent were, according to the BLO, living residents and genuine voters. Despite this, several BLOs alleged that pressure was put on them to delete these voters’ names.Protests, FIR and The Wire reportThe controversy triggered protests by local residents before the Bhadrak District Magistrate–cum-District Election Officer and the police. Several BLOs in Dhamnagar also filed FIRs against the ERO of this constituency, alleging that the OTPs sent to their mobile phones had been obtained and misused.On September 2, The Wire published a report on the alleged indiscriminate deletion of voters’ names during the SIR exercise and the protests that followed. The report was followed by a significant administrative development. On September, 21, the day Odisha’s final electoral roll was published, the state Election Commission directed the Bhadrak DM–cum DEO to suspend Dhamnagar ERO Santosh Kumar Nayak. The District Election Officer subsequently forwarded the matter to Arindam Dakua, Director of Municipal Administration of Odhisa.Why was action delayed?Several days passed without action against the Dhamnagar ERO. On September 25, The Wire published a report regarding this matter. In September, a BJD delegation met Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer R. S. Gopalan in Bhubaneswar. “We showed him The Wire report. He read it. We clearly told him that although you had ordered the suspension of Dhamnagar ERO over irregularities during the SIR exercise, the order had still not been implemented. He then told us that he would take urgent action,” said Nayak.Local people of Dhamnagar march and submit a memorandum demanding against the ERO of Dhamnagar. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.The following day, September 28, the state’s Municipal Administration Director Arindam Dakua suspended the Dhamnagar ERO. Sources, however, alleged that after BJP leaders were informed about the alleged actions of the Dhamnagar ERO, senior BJP leaders at the state level put pressure on the CEO to prevent ERO Dhamnagar suspension. The source further claimed that pressure continued even after the suspension order was issued. This has raised another question: Did such pressure contribute to Gopalan’s decision to seek voluntary retirement?‘It is entirely my personal decision’: GopalanR.S. Gopalan, who had been serving as Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer since 2024, applied for voluntary retirement on September 30.Speaking to the media, Gopalan said the decision was entirely personal. He said he had already decided to seek voluntary retirement after the publication of the final electoral rolls. His retirement was otherwise due in June 2028.Gopalan said he now wanted to devote more time to his family. He added that he would remain in Bhubaneswar until his son completed his schooling.State government rejects allegations Meanwhile, Odisha law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan rejected the opposition’s allegations that Gopalan’s decision had anything to do with political pressure. He said seeking voluntary retirement was the personal right of any government official and appealed against politicising the issue.Yet, with allegations surrounding the SIR exercise, the disputed deletion of voters’ names, complaints from BLOs, FIRs, the suspensions of the Dhamnagar ERO and now the sudden decision of the state’s top election official to seek VRS questions over the conduct of the electoral-roll revision process in Odisha remain.In this situation, Odisha additional Chief Electoral Officer Susanta Kumar Mishra has asked all district election officers, Municipal commissioners, and electoral registration officers to launch a special drive across the state to re-enrol eligible voters left out of the current electoral rolls. In line with Election Commission guidelines, emphasis will be given to enrolling first time voters.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.