Delhi: In an unprecedented move, 193 MPs from the Opposition INDI Alliance have signed two notices seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with plans to submit them in Parliament on Friday.
The signatories include 130 from the Lok Sabha and 63 from the Rajya Sabha, meeting the required minimums of 100 and 50 members respectively under parliamentary rules. The notices will be tabled in at least one House on Friday, though it is unclear whether the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha will act first. This would be the first such notice against a Chief Election Commissioner.
“MPs have shown gr
eat enthusiasm in signing the notice, and several lawmakers came forward to sign the notice on Thursday as well, even as the requisite numbers had already been achieved,” an Opposition MP familiar with the latest development told PTI.
All INDIA bloc parties have signed on, sources said. MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), no longer officially part of the alliance, have also endorsed the notices.
PTI reports that the notices list seven charges against the CEC, ranging from “partisan and discriminatory conduct in office” to “deliberate obstruction of investigation of electoral fraud” and “mass disenfranchisement.”
Opposition parties have long accused the CEC of favouring the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The allegations centre on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists, which critics say benefits the BJP. In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the Election Commission of deleting names of genuine voters’ during the SIR process.