India bloc parties are likely to meet in Delhi on September 30 to discuss the Election Commission and other issues, according to sources cited by PTI.
The planned meeting takes place against the backdrop of a political dispute over how the Election Commission operates and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.
On Friday, Congress workers held protests in multiple states, calling for the resignation and ouster of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Demonstrations took place in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Manipur, and West Bengal.
The demonstrations came after the All India Congress Committee instructed its state branches to march to Election Commission offices and call for action against Kumar.
The opposition has signaled that it is drafting a motion to demand Kumar’s ouster in both Houses of Parliament. The matter is also likely to be taken up at the Congress Working Committee meeting slated for September 29 in New Delhi.
The political clash escalated after an Indian Express investigation revealed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had officially lodged objections at least 14 times over a 10-month period against various decisions and directives related to the SIR process.
Their recorded objections addressed matters such as amendments to voter-registration Form 6, modifications to electoral rolls through additions and deletions, and the centralised management of electoral-roll data.
The Election Commission has dismissed the portrayal of these objections as proof of internal institutional dissent.
It stated that differing opinions, operational questions, internal feedback and administrative recommendations are inherent to the routine functioning of a multi-member constitutional body, and asserted that all final decisions concerning SIR were taken unanimously.
BJP has dismissed the Congress’s accusations. Party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi maintained that the SIR procedure was legally robust and stated that the Commission’s decisions were reached through majority consensus.
In Guwahati, Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi was taken into custody by the Assam Police during a protest calling for Kumar’s resignation. In Manipur, police deployed tear gas shells after a Congress rally escalated into a confrontation, according to PTI.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Congress MLAs staged a protest against Kumar inside the Legislative Assembly, while similar demonstrations took place in Dehradun, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Kolkata, and several other cities.