SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
New Delhi: From calling Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar ‘Vanish Kumar’ to recalling ‘Dil ka haal sune dil waala‘, senior Opposition leaders from different parties registered their protest against the alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls on Saturday, October 31.
With CEC Kumar’s ‘public impeachment’ being held at his residence on Rajaji Marg, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge moved the ‘motion’ while former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar presided over the proceedings.
Moving the motion, Kharge accused CEC Kumar of treason, as he read the “charges” against him, and demanded his removal, the repeal of the 2023 law governing the appointment of election commissioners and an end to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha alleged that Kumar was running the Election Commission at the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Today, the right to vote is under threat because CEC Gyanesh Kumar is running the Election Commission on the directions of Modi and Shah,” Kharge said.
He said Opposition MPs had moved proposals in both Houses of Parliament seeking the CEC’s removal, but their notices were rejected.
“The proposal has been brought today to save the dignity of a constitutional body. We have no personal enmity with the CEC. We want the Election Commission to work impartially. No one should be allowed to wrongfully delete people’s votes while sitting in Delhi through a computer,” he said.
“The Modi government has done everything to remain in power: ‘Sansad chori’, ‘party chori’, electoral bonds and now ‘vote chori’,” he alleged.
Kharge alleged that the CEC was able to carry out such actions because of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which, he said, provided protection to the poll panel chief against any action.
He said the law was passed after 145 Opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament, preventing them from participating in the proceedings.
“This is shameful. Those who were working in the national interest were kept out, and the law was passed. This law gives the CEC impunity that even the president and prime minister do not have,” he alleged.
The stage at the event was designed to resemble the Lok Sabha, with a wooden-panelled backdrop and seats arranged in a semi-circular formation similar to the seating arrangement in Parliament. Microphones were installed in the first three rows.
‘MSG gathbandhan’
Speaking for her party, Trinamool Congress (Mamata) MP Sagarika Ghose called CEC Kumar Vanish Kumar, who allegedly makes votes vanish. She called the government a ‘Modi-Shah-Gyanesh gathbandhan’ and sought the CEC’s resignation.
Speaker after speaker bashed the BJP-led NDA at the Centre as well as the CEC for ‘vote chori’.
Anita Jaiswal, a single mom who finds her name deleted, pointed out that she has voted for years now, but suddenly, she finds her name deleted. “If there is nothing you can give me, who gave you the right to take away my identity from me?” she asked the government.
Nikhil Dey from MKSS brought Kanta Prasad, who has allegedly been declared dead in the draft roll. Prasad addressed the gathering and said he learnt that during a Jan Sunwaai. He said the BLO visited him and got him to fill out Form 6 (which is for first-time voters). He said he has voted from Mangolpuri, Delhi, for 35 years now.
Likewise, Maya Devi from Mayur Vihar said her jhuggi was razed. She said she has her Aadhaar, PAN, and bank account, and yet she doesn’t have a voter ID now.
The ‘impeachment’ comes a day before the INDIA bloc’s mega rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan as part of an ongoing protest against the CEC. For the November 1 rally, groups such as the Cockroach Janta Party have extended support to the INDIA bloc.
(With PTI inputs)
SOURCE : SIASAT
