INDIA Bloc Plans Mock 'Public Impeachment' of CEC Gyanesh Kumar on October 30, Followed by Delhi Rally

The opposition INDIA Bloc has settled on a two-day plan in Delhi aimed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. On October 30, its leaders will hold what they are calling a "public impeachment" and announce a public verdict against him. Two days later, on November 1, they will march to Ramlila Maidan.

The October 30 event will be a "mock Parliament" at Hotel Ashok. It is learnt that all opposition MPs and top leaders of the bloc are expected to attend. It is a staged proceeding, not a formal parliamentary one, and the verdict it delivers will be the opposition's own.

Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal laid out the plan on X. He said the bloc was making an effort to save the Constitution and defeat what he called the "Vote Chors." The public impeachment, he said, would deliver the public's verdict to remove the CEC, whom he also labelled a "Vote Chor," "loud and clear." He said the 'Dilli Chalo March' against "Vote Chori" would follow, ending at Ramlila Maidan on November 1, with at least a million concerned citizens taking part.

Venugopal said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has reached out to all INDIA Bloc parties to ask for their presence in Delhi on both days. Kharge has already spoken to a few leaders.

Preparations are under way inside the party. Earlier in the day, Congress leaders met the heads of its frontal organisations and its Delhi unit leaders to plan for the November 1 rally. That followed meetings the day before with leaders of the party's Uttar Pradesh and Haryana units. Venugopal said he met chairpersons and in-charges of various frontals and departments at Indira Bhavan, and later met AICC Treasurer Ajay Maken, the AICC in-charge, the PCC president and senior Delhi leaders. The party is activating its rank and file to bring people to the rally in large numbers.

Mahila Congress chief Alka Lamba said the rally would be the opposition's biggest, with a target of 10 lakh people. She said there was no question of postponing or cancelling it, as some had suggested because of the festival season.

The rally is part of a series of opposition protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and what the opposition calls the CEC's "poll irregularities." It is meant to increase pressure on the government over the deletion of lakhs of votes and to press for Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over alleged irregularities in the SIR. The party says the rally will show the opposition is united in protecting democracy and "driving vote chors out of power."

The campaign has already reached the Supreme Court's doorstep. On October 12, opposition leaders, joined by activists and civil society members, held a 'March for Democracy' along a heavily barricaded route and filed a joint petition against the SIR.

What to watch is whether the mock proceedings lead to anything formal. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has said any impeachment motion against the CEC would be examined under the rules.