Title: INDIA Bloc Meets in Delhi Today Over SIR Voter-Deletion Row; DMK, TVK and AAP Stay Away
The INDIA Bloc's top leadership is convening in New Delhi on Wednesday, September 30, to plan a united response to the Election Commission of India over the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with a proposed nationwide protest and the demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's removal topping the agenda.
The meeting at the Constitution Club comes in the wake of an Indian Express investigative report claiming that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions taken by CEC Kumar without their prior knowledge. The objections reportedly concerned key aspects of the nationwide SIR, changes to voter forms including Form 6, and the centralisation of access to the voter database. The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that the reported objections reflected institutional dissent, maintaining that decisions relating to the SIR were approved unanimously.
Who is attending, who is skipping
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress chief and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee are attending. The Left parties — CPI(M) represented by Rajya Sabha floor leader John Brittas, CPI, CPI(ML) and RSP — are expected to join, along with NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule and other regional parties. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray is expected to join virtually from Mumbai.
The DMK, TVK and the Aam Aadmi Party are skipping the meeting. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the party has already made clear it is not part of the INDIA alliance, but added that it supports an impeachment motion against CEC Kumar in Parliament and will fight the battle jointly with opposition parties if the motion is brought. Some senior Samajwadi Party leaders may attend.
What the bloc plans to decide
On the table are three items: a strategy to demand the CEC's resignation and push an impeachment motion in Parliament; a blueprint for a joint agitation, possibly nationwide, against the electoral rolls revision; and a discussion on scrapping the SIR exercise altogether.
The meeting follows the Congress Working Committee's Tuesday session, after which the party demanded the CEC's immediate resignation, suspension of the SIR, and restoration of the 13.30 crore names it says have been deleted from the voter lists. Banerjee, arriving in Delhi on Tuesday, said the opposition's target was the CEC and the Election Commission's software team, whom she accused of cheating the public. The opposition has renewed its "vote chori" charge, alleging — without presenting new independent evidence in the meeting notice — that the revision process undermines the sanctity of elections. The Commission and the government have described the SIR as a purification of the voter lists.
Sources: Times Now — "Oppn Bloc Minus DMK, TVK, AAP Meets Today As SIR Voter Deletion Row Blows Up" (https://www.timesnownews.com/india/...oter-deletion-row-blows-up-article-156248908/)
The INDIA Bloc's top leadership is convening in New Delhi on Wednesday, September 30, to plan a united response to the Election Commission of India over the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with a proposed nationwide protest and the demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's removal topping the agenda.
The meeting at the Constitution Club comes in the wake of an Indian Express investigative report claiming that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions taken by CEC Kumar without their prior knowledge. The objections reportedly concerned key aspects of the nationwide SIR, changes to voter forms including Form 6, and the centralisation of access to the voter database. The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that the reported objections reflected institutional dissent, maintaining that decisions relating to the SIR were approved unanimously.
Who is attending, who is skipping
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress chief and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee are attending. The Left parties — CPI(M) represented by Rajya Sabha floor leader John Brittas, CPI, CPI(ML) and RSP — are expected to join, along with NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule and other regional parties. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray is expected to join virtually from Mumbai.
The DMK, TVK and the Aam Aadmi Party are skipping the meeting. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the party has already made clear it is not part of the INDIA alliance, but added that it supports an impeachment motion against CEC Kumar in Parliament and will fight the battle jointly with opposition parties if the motion is brought. Some senior Samajwadi Party leaders may attend.
What the bloc plans to decide
On the table are three items: a strategy to demand the CEC's resignation and push an impeachment motion in Parliament; a blueprint for a joint agitation, possibly nationwide, against the electoral rolls revision; and a discussion on scrapping the SIR exercise altogether.
The meeting follows the Congress Working Committee's Tuesday session, after which the party demanded the CEC's immediate resignation, suspension of the SIR, and restoration of the 13.30 crore names it says have been deleted from the voter lists. Banerjee, arriving in Delhi on Tuesday, said the opposition's target was the CEC and the Election Commission's software team, whom she accused of cheating the public. The opposition has renewed its "vote chori" charge, alleging — without presenting new independent evidence in the meeting notice — that the revision process undermines the sanctity of elections. The Commission and the government have described the SIR as a purification of the voter lists.
Sources: Times Now — "Oppn Bloc Minus DMK, TVK, AAP Meets Today As SIR Voter Deletion Row Blows Up" (https://www.timesnownews.com/india/...oter-deletion-row-blows-up-article-156248908/)
