INDIA bloc stages ‘public impeachment’ of CEC Gyanesh Kumar; Kharge lists six charges

Opposition leaders of the INDIA bloc held a "public impeachment" of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in New Delhi on Saturday, with Kharge reading out six charges against him a day before the bloc's rally at Ramlila Maidan against the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls.

The event, presided over by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, has no legal force. It was staged after notices for a formal removal motion against the CEC were rejected in Parliament earlier this year. The BJP has dismissed the exercise as political drama.

The charges

Kharge accused Kumar of conspiring to influence national and state elections, deleting 13.2 crore voters from the rolls, rewriting Form 6 (the form used to register new voters) without parliamentary oversight, taking control of the rolls through the Commission's ECINET platform, keeping the two other Election Commissioners out of key decisions, and acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, The Tribune reported.

"We hold no personal grudge against the CEC," Kharge said, according to India TV, while alleging that Kumar ran the Commission on the direct instructions of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

Kharge said 193 opposition MPs had submitted a notice seeking the CEC's removal about seven months ago and that the notices were rejected, The Tribune reported. He also criticised the 2023 law on the appointment of election commissioners, saying it gave them a "lifelong protective shield", according to India TV. Meira Kumar said that if even one voter was denied the right to vote, democracy was hurt.

None of the reports carried a response from the Election Commission to Saturday's charges.

Who was there

Those present included Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, Kapil Sibal, Samajwadi Party MPs, and Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O'Brien, Mahua Moitra and Sagarika Ghose, according to The Tribune.

The programme had been set for Friday afternoon but was postponed by a day because of rain, ETV Bharat and India TV reported. Rahul Gandhi said both the impeachment and Sunday's rally were about what he called the demolition of democracy by Modi, Shah and Kumar, ETV Bharat reported.

The reports differed on the next step: The Tribune said Kharge moved the motion at the gathering, while India TV quoted Meira Kumar as saying it would be moved in the Rajya Sabha by Kharge, as Leader of the Opposition there.

What the BJP says

BJP leaders criticised the plan before it was held. BJP leader Ram Kadam said impeachment was a serious constitutional process that should not be turned into "a political drama", IANS reported on Friday. BJP MP Yogender Chandolia questioned what message the opposition wanted to send with "mock drill programmes", and said it should raise its concerns in Parliament.

The BJP has been running a "Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy" campaign in Delhi. Party president Nitin Nabin led a yatra in Chandni Chowk on Wednesday and said democracy was "in safe hands", ANI reported.

What happens next

The INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan runs from 10 am to 5 pm on Sunday, under Delhi Police conditions that it end by 5 pm with no overnight stay, ANI reported. Rahul Gandhi has called for a march to the venue from the Minto Road junction near Connaught Place at noon; Delhi Police sources told ANI that no application had been filed for that procession, though the rally itself has permission, India TV reported.