INDIA bloc parties to meet on 30 Sep to discuss demand for CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, SIR issue

New Delhi: Member parties of the INDIA bloc will meet in New Delhi on 30 September to discuss the demand for removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the issue of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, ThePrint has learnt.

The meeting has been called amid fresh escalation in the Opposition’s attack on Kumar following the report by The Indian Express on differences among the three Election Commissioners over the SIR exercise. The invite was extended from the office of Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, sources said.

Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhikesh Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.A. Baby, former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, and leaders of other bloc parties are expected to attend. Other leaders from Mamata’s Trinamool faction, CPI(M), and Samajwadi Party are also likely to be present.

M.A. Baby also wrote to Opposition leaders seeking a joint discussion on developments in the Election Commission. He spoke to Banerjee, who agreed that the issue needed a coordinated response.

Sources in Mamata-led TMC said she and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee would be present. There was bitterness in Congress and her party’s relations, which were later resolved with the intervention of Congress Parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Meanwhile, the Congress has continued to step up its campaign against CEC Kumar. Rahul Gandhi has attacked him over the SIR issue and the differences within the poll panel. The party also held protests across several states Friday demanding Kumar’s removal.

Earlier on Thursday, Rahul alleged that the Election Commission was responsible for what he called “vote chori, law chori and then institution chori”.

Opposition parties are also preparing a fresh impeachment notice against the CEC, which is expected to be submitted in both Houses of Parliament after legal vetting. This would be the Opposition’s third attempt to seek Kumar’s removal. The draft is expected to contain at least 12 allegations, sources said.

The developments follow a report in The Indian Express, according to which Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on several occasions over decisions and orders linked to electoral rolls and the SIR exercise. The two commissioners raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months on issues included the addition, deletion and restoration of voters’ names, appeals related to electoral-roll decisions and access to the poll panel’s electoral-roll database, the report said.

The report added that the commissioners had also objected to some decisions and orders taken without their knowledge or approval.

The Election Commission has said that differences of views and observations are a normal part of the discussion process, maintaining that its orders have full legal sanction and follow statutory procedures.

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