NEW DELHI: The Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc will shortly hold its “public impeachment”programme against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, a day after postponing the exercise by 24 hours due to rain in Delhi.The symbolic exercise will be held at 10, Rajaji Marg, the residence of Congress president and Rajya Sabha leader of the opposition Mallikarjun Kharge. Kumar has been facing allegations of irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.Separately, The Indian Express reported last month that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times to decisions they claimed were taken without their knowledge, including those concerning the SIR, adding to the scrutiny of Kumar.The “impeachment” exercise is being held a day ahead of the INDIA bloc’s “Delhi Chalo” rally at Ramlila Maidan, where the opposition will seek Kumar’s resignation.
Congress chief Kharge to initiate proceedings: Meira Kumar
Kharge-sahab will begin, followed by leaders from the INDIA bloc and representatives from civil society; additionally, citizens whose names have been removed from the voter list will share their perspectives: Congress leader and ex-Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar
AISA chief Neha Bora arrives at Kharge’s residence
Student activist Neha Bora, president of All India Students’ Association, arrives for the programme.“I have come for the public impeachment. This impeachment—something people across India have been demanding for a long time—is taking place here today. If those currently in power in Parliament were truly representing the interests of the people, then what is happening here today would instead be taking place inside our Parliament,” she told reporters.
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CEC has ‘disqualified’ himself as an ‘impartial umpire’: Shashi Tharoor on ‘public impeachment’
According to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, the “public impeachment” programme is being held to reinforce that CEC Kumar has “disqualified himself as an impartial umpire” of the electoral process.“I understand that the Congress party and the other opposition parties’ notices of impeachment have not been admitted by the presiding officers of either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha. This is why we have no choice but to conduct the impeachment here,” Tharoor told reporters outside the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
BJP hits out at Rahul Gandhi ahead of ‘mock Parliament’
After being successively unsuccessful in creating anarchy in India, the Congress party, just in order to give solace to the sentiment of their maverick prince, Rahul Gandhi, is now creating a hallucination that he is there in the Parliament of his own choice by creating a mock parliament: BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi