INDIA Bloc MPs March on Election Commission Demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's Removal

Opposition MPs from the INDIA bloc set off from Parliament on Tuesday morning on a march to Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission's headquarters in New Delhi, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They did not get far: the marchers were halted at multi-layered barricades near Akashvani Bhawan, where they raised slogans against the CEC.

Central Delhi had been turned into a security zone in advance. Around 4,000 personnel from the Delhi Police and central armed forces, including the Rapid Action Force and CISF, were deployed around Parliament, Vijay Chowk and the poll body's office. Traffic was diverted from 8 am on stretches including Parliament Street, Ashoka Road and Jantar Mantar Road, and prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita were in force around Jantar Mantar.

What the opposition wants

The march is the centrepiece of the bloc's Save Democracy campaign over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Opposition parties allege that the exercise has wrongly removed large numbers of voters, with Congress leaders putting the figure at about 13 crore, and accuse the commission of acting in the ruling party's interest. Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge led the Congress participation, while Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav travelled from Lucknow to join. The Biju Janata Dal also said its MPs would take part.

The Aam Aadmi Party stayed away. Its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the party would fight the issue in its own way.

Several leaders framed the protest in personal terms against the CEC. Congress MP Imran Masood likened the security clampdown to the Emergency and said Kumar should resign after the Supreme Court's remarks. Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav pointed to the government's earlier decision to replace the Chief Justice of India on the panel that selects election commissioners with a Union minister.

The Supreme Court backdrop

The march came a day after the Supreme Court sharpened the dispute. Hearing a petition seeking Kumar's suspension, Chief Justice Surya Kant said the court had not approved any modified version of Form 6, the form used to enrol new voters, and wanted to see records of who had changed it. The court declined to suspend the CEC on an interim basis but issued notices to the Centre, the commission, Kumar and other officials.

The petition alleges that 14 key SIR decisions were taken in the commission's name despite objections recorded by the other two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The court said that if a breach of the statutory framework were established, it could undo the decisions.

The BJP's response

The BJP rejected the campaign. Party spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the opposition of trying to create anarchy and weaken constitutional institutions in order to relaunch Rahul Gandhi, and said the Supreme Court had not declared Form 6 illegal and that the commission's decision had been unanimous.

What comes next

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has laid out a longer programme: district-level marches until October 8, block-level meetings from October 10 to 20, and state and district rallies from October 25 to November 25 aimed at identifying voters missing from the rolls. The confrontation is likely to return to the Supreme Court once the respondents file their replies.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.