INDIA Bloc to Meet on September 30 to Chart Strategy Against CEC Gyanesh Kumar

The opposition INDIA bloc will meet at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi on September 30 to finalise its strategy on a removal motion against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with the gathering expected to collect signatures on the proposed motion.

This would be the alliance's third attempt at moving against the poll body's chief. The move follows a report on September 23 that revealed internal disagreements within the Election Commission over the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls. According to the report, the two other commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, recorded their objections 14 times over 10 months.

The meeting was arranged after Trinamool Congress founder Mamata Banerjee held an extensive phone conversation with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, and CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby, who proposed an immediate huddle to frame a strategy. The leaders subsequently settled on September 30 as the date.

The developments have brought the TMC and the CPI(M), long-time political rivals in West Bengal, onto the same page on the Election Commission issue, though they have previously sat together as part of the INDIA bloc at the national level.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC's Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray are among those expected to attend, along with leaders of other constituent parties. The bloc last met on June 8 at the same venue. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has distanced itself from the alliance following the Tamil Nadu assembly election results in May, and it remains unclear whether it will attend.

The meeting is likely to have three agenda items: the strategy on the removal motion in Parliament, including collecting signatures; intensifying the demand for Gyanesh Kumar's resignation and an impartial probe into the EC's decisions, along with planning further protests; and a framework for a nationwide agitation, particularly in poll-bound states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Ahead of that, the Congress Working Committee is scheduled to meet on September 29 to discuss the party's strategy on the issue.

The CPI(M), CPI and CPI(ML)-Liberation have demanded Kumar's removal and an immediate halt to the SIR. Addressing a press conference on Saturday, CPI(ML)-Liberation's Dipankar Bhattacharya said the September 30 meeting should not be limited to the bloc.

"We urge that this meeting not remain limited to the INDIA alliance alone, but include all Opposition parties, civil society members, concerned citizens, and public intellectuals, everyone, because our democracy and India's electoral system have never faced a crisis of this magnitude before," he said.

"Ever since the revelation came out... there has been only one question across the entire country: When is Gyanesh Kumar stepping down?" Bhattacharya said, adding that as long as Kumar remains in the position, the Commission retains no credibility.

Five Left parties have called for nationwide protests from September 26 to October 2 over the issue, Bhattacharya said. Congress workers also staged demonstrations on Friday in several states and Union territories, including Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has rejected the opposition's allegations that the SIR was being conducted to favour the ruling party, calling the allegations and reports attempts to divert attention from electoral defeats. The Election Commission has said that differing views and observations are a normal part of institutional deliberations, that its orders have full legal sanction and follow statutory procedures, and that all final decisions on the SIR were taken unanimously with the approval of all three commissioners.