INDIA Bloc Plans 'Public Impeachment' of CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Oct 30, Followed by Nov 1 Delhi Rally

On October 30, at Hotel Ashok in Delhi, leaders of the opposition INDIA Bloc plan to stage what they are calling a "public impeachment" of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It is described as a "mock Parliament," with all opposition MPs and top leaders expected to attend, according to what the reporting has learnt. The bloc says the session will end with a public verdict against Kumar.

The announcement came from Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, who posted on X that the proceeding is part of an effort to save the Constitution and defeat what he called "Vote Chors." In his words, the public's verdict to remove the CEC would be delivered "loud and clear." He used the same label, "vote chor," for Kumar himself.

The day after, on November 1, the bloc plans a "Dilli Chalo" march against what it calls "vote chori," ending at Ramlila Maidan. Venugopal said at least a million citizens would take part. Mahila Congress chief Alka Lamba put the party's target at 10 lakh people, which she said would make it the opposition's biggest rally yet. Both figures are targets set by the organisers, not counts of anyone who has registered or turned up.

Preparation is under way inside the Congress. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge has reached out to all INDIA Bloc parties asking them to be in Delhi on both days, and has already spoken to a few leaders, Venugopal said. On the day of the announcement, the leadership met heads of the party's frontal organisations and Delhi unit leaders at Indira Bhavan. Venugopal said he also met AICC Treasurer Ajay Maken, the AICC in-charge, the PCC president and senior Delhi leaders. A day earlier, the leadership had met leaders of the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana units. The party says it is activating its rank and file to join in large numbers.

Lamba said there was no question of postponing or cancelling the rally, as some have suggested because of the festival season. Venugopal said people from across the country would attend to send the message that the opposition is united in protecting democracy and "driving these vote chors out of power."

The events belong to a series of opposition protests against the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of the electoral rolls, and against what the bloc calls the CEC's poll irregularities. The aim, as the bloc frames it, is to raise pressure on the government over the deletion of lakhs of votes and to press for Kumar's resignation over alleged irregularities in the SIR. These are the opposition's allegations; the reporting does not carry a response from Kumar or the Election Commission.

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

What the bloc has not set out is what follows the mock impeachment. A symbolic verdict at Hotel Ashok carries no formal force, and nothing in the announcement outlines a parliamentary or legal step against the CEC. That is the thing to watch after November 1.