At least 21 Opposition parties have decided to meet in New Delhi on September 30 to chalk out a joint strategy for the next stage of political action against Chief Election Commissioner ( CEC ) Gyanesh Kumar, seeking his removal and taking a call to move another impeachment notice against him, people aware of the development said.
Meanwhile, the Congress has called for a meeting of its top executive body—Congress Working Committee— on September 29 to discuss the issues surrounding the CEC and the conduct of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’Brien announced that both the party chief and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will attend the meeting. “First, GK (Gyanesh Kumar) has to GO. There are certain other demands which have been raised. Those demands are very much in place, including how a CEC is selected and how SIR was a fraud. He stands exposed and is now petrified as an entire country seeks to hold him accountable. The ongoing SIR which has turned to be method of massive disenfranchisement of several crores of India must be suspended immediately without delay. In the meantime, nothing short of the CEC’s resignation or prosecution will suffice.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee , Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav , Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)’s Tejaswi Yadav, Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary MA Baby are among the leaders from 21 Opposition parties expected to join the meeting.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which faces the Congress in the upcoming Punjab assembly elections, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which has snapped its ties with the Congress, will not attend the meeting, however, both parties will sign the joint declaration against the CEC, according to a person aware of the matter. We will work unitedly, purposefully and swiftly,” he said. The meeting is likely raise demands, including a suspension of the ongoing SIR and inclusion of the Chief Justice of India in the three-member panel that selects the CEC, the person cited above said.
Congress’s communications head Jairam Ramesh said in a statement on Saturday, “The CEC thinks he can hide behind ‘bureaucratise’ and protocol.
