Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Top leaders of the INDIA bloc will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday to finalise an action plan for a joint agitation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and to press for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. The meeting is expected to begin at 11 am.
Sources told news agency PTI that a draft notice for a fresh attempt to move motions in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seeking Gyanesh Kumar’s removal was ready and would be discussed at the meeting for approval. The meeting comes amid a simmering row over an Express report that claimed differences within the Election Commission over some aspects of the SIR exercise.
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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal, Mamata All India Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, and leaders from the Samajwadi Party, CPI, CPI(M), NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), among others, are expected to attend the meeting, according to PTI.
The DMK and AAP have said they will not attend the meeting. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will also be absent due to Rajya Sabha election nominations in Uttar Pradesh and is expected to send representatives.
The INDIA bloc huddle comes a day after a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, where Kharge had demanded the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, claiming the CEC was a “puppet” of the Narendra Modi government.
WHY AKHILESH YADAV WON’T ATTEND MEETING?
On Akhilesh Yadav’s absence from the meeting, Venugopal said he and Kharge had spoken to the SP chief, who had to attend to Rajya Sabha election nominations, while representatives of his party would participate in the meeting.
Venugopal also said the Congress wanted to organise a “massive agitation” with the support of opposition parties and that suggestions from INDIA bloc leaders would be used to finalise the future course of action.
“We will coordinate between the INDIA bloc agitation programme and that of the Congress,” he told reporters.
Asked whether efforts would be made to bring parties such as the DMK and AAP on board, Venugopal said the matter would be discussed. “The DMK was very much part of the INDIA bloc. Still, we believe they are all against this type of attack on democracy. That is our thinking. Let us see,” he said.
DMK TO BACK OPPOSITION FOR REMOVAL OF GYANESH KUMAR
The DMK, meanwhile, said it would support a removal motion against Kumar in Parliament despite deciding to skip the INDIA bloc meeting. The MK Stalin-led party quit the INDIA bloc after Congress ended its long-standing alliance and aligned with Vijay’s TVK following its stunning Assembly poll win earlier this year.
DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said, “Ideologically, we all stand together. Maybe we are not part of the INDIA bloc. That is different. But in Parliament, we will support whoever brings a removal motion against Gyanesh Kumar.”
He added that the DMK would support Opposition parties on several issues where they oppose the BJP, but said this did not mean the party was part of the INDIA bloc.
ABOUT SIR ROW
The SIR issue has emerged as a point of convergence among Opposition parties, with the INDIA bloc seeking to coordinate its response to the Election Commission’s exercise and its decision-making.
The meeting came days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected at least 14 times in 10 months to SIR-related decisions issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
The Election Commission, responding to the report, said differing views and observations were a normal part of deliberations within an institution and maintained that its orders had full legal sanction and followed established statutory procedures.
The latest INDIA bloc meeting comes nearly four months after its previous meeting on June 8.
At that meeting, Opposition parties had decided to demand the resignation of then-Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET-CBSE row and write to the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant regarding the SIR exercise and allegations of “vote chori”.
– Ends
(with inputs from PTI)
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
