India’s opposition INDIA bloc staged a symbolic “public impeachment” of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi on Saturday, escalating its campaign against the Election Commission’s revision of voter rolls.
The proceeding, held in the gardens of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s official residence at 10, Rajaji Marg, was presided over by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. Kharge moved a resolution seeking Kumar’s removal and setting out six charges against him, with opposition MPs, party representatives and civil society figures in attendance, along with people who said their names had been removed from voter lists.
The charges, as presented by the opposition, were that Kumar conspired to steal elections, oversaw the deletion of 13.2 crore — 132 million — voters, changed the voter-registration Form 6 process without adequate parliamentary oversight, centralised control of electoral rolls through the ECINET digital platform, excluded the other two Election Commissioners from key decisions, and acted at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Those are allegations made by the opposition, not findings by any court or inquiry, and they remain unproven.
The dispute centres on the Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, an exercise to verify and update voter lists that the opposition says has removed large numbers of eligible voters without enough transparency or safeguards. Reporting by The Indian Express, cited in coverage of Saturday’s event, said fellow Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to changes in the online Form 6 process. The Commission has rejected the claim that the statutory Form 6 was amended, saying in an October 26 submission to the Supreme Court that its revision decisions were taken unanimously by all three commissioners, and that the additional declaration at issue was separate from the statutory form.
The symbolism of Saturday’s event matters because it has no legal force. Under Article 324(5) of India’s Constitution, the Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only in the same manner and on the same grounds as a Supreme Court judge, which requires a motion admitted by a presiding officer, an inquiry, and approval by a majority of the total membership of each House and two-thirds of members present and voting in both Houses. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the public proceeding was forced on the opposition because formal removal notices submitted to the presiding officers of both Houses had not been admitted; earlier opposition removal motions, submitted in March, were rejected by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman in April.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party dismissed the event as political theatre. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi accused Congress of staging a “mock parliament” to appease Rahul Gandhi, who attended Saturday’s proceeding and was due to give concluding remarks. The BJP maintains that the opposition’s campaign is a distraction from established constitutional and parliamentary procedures.
The event had been postponed from Friday after heavy rain in Delhi, and it serves as a curtain-raiser for a larger opposition rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, 1 November, where leaders intend to demand the Commissioner’s resignation and accountability over the voter-roll exercise. Meira Kumar said the bloc would also convene a meeting to bring forward a formal impeachment motion, to be moved in the Rajya Sabha by Kharge.
What happens next will test whether a protest designed for public attention can become a parliamentary one. Saturday’s proceeding changed nothing in law, and Kumar remains in office. But by putting the voter-roll dispute, the internal Commission disagreement and the question of the Commission’s independence at the centre of its campaign ahead of the winter session, the opposition has ensured the row will dominate the build-up to Sunday’s rally and beyond.
Sources: Mirror Now, “INDIA bloc holds ‘public impeachment’ event against CEC Gyanesh Kumar”, https://www.mirrornow.in/india-news/india-bloc-holds-public-impeachment-event-against-cec-gyanesh-kumar-article-156440939 ; Global Nexus, “INDIA Bloc’s Public Impeachment of CEC Gyanesh Kumar: 6 Charges Explained”, https://globalnexus.co.in/breaking-news/india-bloc-holds-cec-impeachment/ ; The Daily Jagran (PTI updates), “Public Impeachment Event: INDIA Bloc Leaders Attack CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Demand Legal Action For ‘Treason'”, https://www.thedailyjagran.com/india/news/sir-row-india-bloc-public-impeachment-cec-gyanesh-kumar-nov-1-rally-ramlila-maidan-rahul-gandhi-mallikarjun-kharge-10334648
