Bengaluru, Sept. 24 -- Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday escalated the political battle over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and calling for the ongoing exercise to be scrapped and conducted afresh.

The demand came amid a controversy over reported differences within the three-member Election Commission, with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi reported to have raised objections on several occasions over decisions relating to electoral rolls, voter registration and deletion of names.

Shivakumar said the reported differences within the poll panel had raised serious questions about the conduct of the electo...