INDIA Bloc To Meet On September 30, Removing Gyanesh Kumar Main Agenda

The opposition parties' INDIA bloc has called a meeting at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi on September 30 to finalise its strategy on a removal motion against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The meeting may collect signatures on the proposed motion. It would be the opposition's third such attempt, coming after a report in The Indian Express revealed the ECI's internal disagreements over the controversial Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls and related issues. The two other commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, recorded their objections 14 times in 10 months, the report said on September 23.

The opposition parties led by the Congress are now expected to step up their demand for Gyanesh Kumar's resignation and an independent inquiry into the Election Commission's (EC) decisions, and to draw up a roadmap for a nationwide agitation.

The meeting came after Trinamool Congress founder Mamata Banerjee spoke at length over the phone to Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary MA Baby, who proposed an immediate huddle to frame a strategy, sources said. The leaders then settled on September 30 as the date, it is learnt.

The developments have brought the TMC and the CPI(M), bitter political rivals in West Bengal, on the same page on the EC issue, though they have earlier sat together as part of the INDIA bloc at least at the national level

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC's Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray are among those expected to attend, along with leaders of other constituent parties, sources said. The bloc last met on June 8 at the Constitution Club. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has distanced itself from the alliance following the Tamil Nadu assembly election results in May, as the Congress switched to Vijay's TVK that formed the government. It's unclear whether the DMK will attend this meeting.

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

Before 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.

"After this revelation, as long as Gyanesh Kumar ji remains in the position of Chief Election Commissioner, the Commission retains no credibility whatsoever," he said.

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 (BJP) has rejected the opposition's allegations that the SIR was being done to favour the ruling party, calling the allegations and reports "attempts to divert attention from electoral defeats".

The EC has said that differing views and observations are a normal part of institutional deliberations, and that its orders have full legal sanction and follow statutory procedures. The poll body has also said all final decisions on the SIR were taken unanimously with the approval of all three commissioners.