INDIA bloc to meet on Wednesday for joint SIR agitation, CEC removal notice
New Delhi: Top leaders of the INDIA bloc will meet in the capital on Wednesday. They will finalise a joint agitation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and press for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Sources said the draft notice for a fresh motion in both Houses of Parliament for Mr Kumar's removal is ready. It will be put up for approval at the meeting.
The Congress will be represented by president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal. The TMC's Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee and leaders of the SP, CPI, CPI(M), NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) are also expected.
The DMK and the AAP have said they will stay away. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will send representatives because of Rajya Sabha poll nominations in Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Venugopal said the Congress wanted a nationwide agitation "to save democracy" with the help of all political parties. "We will coordinate between the INDIA bloc agitation programme and that of the Congress," he told reporters.
Asked about Mr Yadav's absence, he said he had spoken to him and that the SP chief had poll work. On whether the DMK and the AAP would be brought on board, he said those issues would be discussed.
DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said his party would support any removal motion against Mr Kumar in Parliament even though it is not part of the bloc. "Ideologically, we all stand together. Maybe we are not part of the INDIA alliance," he said.
The meeting follows a report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times in ten months to SIR decisions. They said the decisions were taken without their knowledge or recommendation.
The Election Commission has said differing views are normal in any institution and that its orders carry legal sanction. The bloc last met on June 8, when it demanded the resignation of then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET-CBSE row.
(With inputs from PTI)
