INDIA bloc 'impeaches' CEC Gyanesh Kumar in a mock Parliament at Kharge's home

Opposition parties of the INDIA bloc staged a symbolic impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday, sitting as a mock Parliament at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence at 10 Rajaji Marg in New Delhi.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar presided. Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, moved the motion, and the 21 parties present adopted a six-point resolution demanding Kumar’s immediate removal. “This assembly has been convened for the proceedings of the public impeachment against CEC Gyanesh Kumar,” Meira Kumar said as she opened the sitting.

The six charges

Kharge read out the charges. The opposition accuses the Chief Election Commissioner of conspiring to influence national and state elections, of deleting 13.2 crore voters from the rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and of rewriting Form 6 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, without parliamentary oversight.

The other charges are that he took control of the electoral rolls through the ECINET software, kept the other two Election Commissioners out of key decisions, and acted at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Kharge said the right to vote under Article 326 was under threat. He recalled that a notice seeking the CEC’s removal, signed by 193 opposition MPs seven months ago, had been rejected. He asked for the SIR data, including how many deceased voters were removed and the names of everyone deleted, and accused the government of crushing protests against the revision with suspended trains, internet shutdowns and arrests of young people.

Rahul Gandhi closes

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, gave the concluding remarks and said the bloc had been “left with no choice”. He claimed 13.3 crore voters, about 15% of the electorate, had been deleted, more than the margins in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, and warned that those responsible would be punished.

Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Mehbooba Mufti and Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra were among those present. Trinamool’s Sagarika Ghose said the 2026 Bengal election had been “stolen”. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant said Kumar had not handed over CCTV footage, and CPI(M) MP John Brittas said he had to attend two hearings to prove his own right to vote. IUML’s E T Mohammed Basheer called Kumar a “manipulator”. Voters whose names had been struck off also spoke.

The Election Commission had not publicly responded by Saturday evening. The event had been planned for Friday and was put back by a day, reportedly because of rain. On Tuesday, the Congress said it had been denied permission to hold it.

Shah’s challenge and the BJP’s reply

On the eve of the event, Amit Shah told the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh working committee in Lucknow that he was willing to convene a special session of Parliament so the opposition could debate its vote theft charge there. “I am ready to call a special session... But Rahul Baba will never agree,” he said, calling the allegations against the Commission baseless and accusing Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav of wanting drama on the streets.

The BJP said on Saturday the opposition was making a mockery of Parliament. “Kharge ji, by repeatedly telling lies, you cannot prove Rahul Gandhi’s claims to be true,” BJP MP Sambit Patra said. Party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi pointed to a new World Bank poverty estimate. “The World Bank’s hard statistics have in a way mocked their mock parliament,” he said.

The bloc now moves to the street. It holds a rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, 1 November.