The Congress party today alleged the Election Commission of India (ECI) may not be working as an independent body anymore, referring to a report by the Indian Express that said two election commissioners objected to several decisions of the ECI taken allegedly without their knowledge.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the charge with his opening attack that set the path open for the rest of the Opposition party’s leaders to punch through. “Your time will come. The Congress and other Opposition parties have been alleging that the ECI’s voter roll cleanup exercise, Special Intensive Revision (SIR), was a sophisticated process to exclude voters for the BJP’s gain.
The Congress MP also shared a 15-second video in which he is seen telling the Election Commission and its officers that what they have been doing was wrong.
You cannot get away,” he said.
“After the big news break today that the two election commissioners objected to many of CEC’s actions, it’s time to bring out the RS motion today. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien’s post on X on the issue also referred to calls for an impeachment of the chief election commissioner. The national rollout of the SIR exercise has been under the supervision of all the three top officers of the ECI – Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
He recalled a bid by over 60 MPs in the Rajya Sabha asking the Chairman to move a motion for removing Gyanesh Kumar.
This latest report on the ECI has opened a new and much more volatile front in the long battle between the Opposition and the ruling BJP over the SIR, to the extent that Congress leader Manish Tewari today alleged there could be an “invisible hand” running the ECI. Impeach CEC to save democracy,” Derek O’Brien said.
