INDIA Bloc Plans 'Public Impeachment' of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on October 30

On October 30, opposition leaders from the INDIA Bloc are due to gather at Hotel Ashok in New Delhi for what they are calling a "public impeachment" of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It is a mock Parliament, according to PTI, with all opposition MPs and top leaders expected to attend. The proceeding is meant to end with a public verdict against Kumar.

The plan was announced on October 24 by K C Venugopal, the Congress general secretary for organisation. Writing on X, he said the bloc's effort to save the Constitution and defeat what he called "Vote Chors" would culminate in a proceeding where the public's verdict to remove the CEC would be "delivered loud and clear." The language is the opposition's own: it describes Kumar as a "Vote Chor," or vote thief, a charge that runs through the whole campaign.

The impeachment is the first of two events. On November 1, the bloc plans a "Dilli Chalo" march against "vote chori," ending at Ramlila Maidan. Venugopal said at least a million people would take part. Alka Lamba, chief of the Mahila Congress, put the party's target at 10 lakh, the same figure in Indian usage, and called it the opposition's biggest rally yet.

Preparation is under way. Venugopal said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has contacted all INDIA Bloc parties to ask for their presence in Delhi on both days, and has already spoken to a few leaders. Earlier on October 24, Congress leaders met chairpersons and in-charges of the party's frontal organisations and departments at Indira Bhavan, and separately met AICC in-charges, state unit presidents and senior Delhi leaders alongside AICC Treasurer Ajay Maken. The day before, the leadership had met units from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The party says it is activating its rank and file to turn out in large numbers.

The grievance behind all this is the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of the voter rolls. The opposition points to the deletion of lakhs of votes and alleged irregularities in the exercise, and it wants Kumar to resign. The rally is described as part of a series of protests against the SIR and what the party calls the CEC's "poll irregularities." The message, the party says, is that the opposition is united in protecting democracy.

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" toward the Supreme Court along a heavily barricaded route. The same day, they filed a joint petition against the SIR.

Some have suggested the November 1 rally be postponed or cancelled because of the festival season. Lamba rejected this, saying there was no question of doing so.

The things to watch are practical ones: which INDIA Bloc parties actually show up at Hotel Ashok on October 30, and whether the crowd at Ramlila Maidan on November 1 comes anywhere near the million the organisers are promising.