Opposition may seek impeachment of poll body chief

The Opposition is considering moving an impeachment notice against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged 'vote chori', sources said. Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi remarked, "We will be taking a decision very soon." However, ousting the CEC requires a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament - a number the Opposition currently lacks.

Since the Opposition does not have the numbers to push such a motion through, this appears to be more of a pressure tactic. Congress Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain said that the party is ready to use all democratic tools, including an impeachment motion if needed, though no formal discussions have been held so far.

“If there is a need, we will use all the weapons of democracy under the rules. We have not had any discussions (about impeachment) as of now, but if needed, we can do anything," Hussain said.

According to the sources, Opposition parties discussed bringing the motion to remove the poll body chief during a meeting of their leaders at Parliament this morning. The Opposition parties' plans on this subject follow the poll body chief's strong remarks targeting the INDIA bloc's allegations of vote fraud.

A day before, Gyanesh Kumar sought to demolish ‘vote theft’ allegations levelled by Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders, citing provisions of the Constitution and clauses of electoral laws. He termed Gandhi’s allegations an “insult" to the Constitution of India. The CEC also asked Rahul Gandhi to either furnish a signed affidavit or apologise to the nation for his remarks.

Later, Rahul Gandhi hit back at the CEC, alleging that the Election Commission is asking for an affidavit from him but doesn’t from BJP MP Anurag Thakur when he makes the same allegations. “The Election Commission asks for an affidavit from me. But when Anurag Thakur says the same thing that I am saying, the poll body does not ask for an affidavit from him," Rahul Gandhi said.

Last week, Rahul Gandhi had said the Opposition is protesting for the right to vote for every Indian and demanded a “clean and pure" voter list, asserting that the issue of alleged irregularities pointed out by him will “explode" soon, as it is not related to a single constituency but the whole country.

Indicating that he would not submit a signed affidavit as sought by the Election Commission, Gandhi asserted that the data analysed by the Congress to provide “proof" of “vote theft" is taken from the Election Commission’s website.

Earlier, Gandhi had cited data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to claim that over 1 lakh votes were “stolen" through five types of manipulation in the Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka. He alleged there were 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single-address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos, and 33,692 voters misusing Form 6 of new voters.